Darkness of the Unknown
by Zaerith Vrinn
Summary: A normal day turns into a tragedy for the Autobot Elite Guard, and soon the loss of many becomes a mystery as they try to find out who, or what is resonsible, but in their way is an all new enemy, who knows everything they do and more. Rated for violence
1. Preface

**Author's note: **This has been an idea of mine for a while, and after some encouragement from a friend on DA I'm finally writing it, please enjoy and feel free to leave suggestions because I only have the first two or three chapters planned.

**Warning: **Gore, lots and lots of robo-gore, this fic is rated for VIOLENCE!**  
Disclaimer: **This fic is too messy to even claim that I am part of the TFA team.

Darkness of the Unknown

Preface

What had started out as a normal day would become known as the most tragic massacre in the Elite Guard history.

Autobot Academy was filled with hyper recruits just entering, and stoked cadets who would soon become full official members of the greatest band of Autobots to ever graduate. To greet them, senior members had arrived, but some had to be called back and only a few actually were there at the time of the tragedy.

And even fewer survived.

"Is this it?" Sentinel asked noting that only he, Jazz, and Ultra Magnus were present.

Ultra Magnus nodded, "Unfortunately, Blurr could not be reached, and everyone else had to return." He shook his head, "The graduates are going to be disappointed, but they'll have to live with it."

"Its alright, they've got the coolest and the strongest, they should at least appreciate that!" Jazz insisted, "Right Sent?"

The blue Prime put a hand on the ninja's shoulder, "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?" he sighed.

"Oh Sentinel," Ultra Magnus chuckled, "it's just a friendly nickname, let him have his fun."

Sentinel rolled his optics, "Feh, whatever, the ceremony is about to begin, we'd better get out there."

The two others nodded and they headed out.

--

The first sign of trouble was an explosion. An instructor was sent to see what it was; they assumed it would be just a glitch in a computer that caused a malfunction, and a generator mainframe to blow out. But as only minutes went by, there came shouts, and more explosions; then the worst.

"We're under attack!!!"

Ultra Magnus gave the orders for the recruits to be evacuated, while everyone else prepared to defend the academy. Jazz and Sentinel stood back to back in the center of what had once been a combat simulation field. The ninja had all kinds or arsenal ready for battle anytime the offense began, Sentinel had his energy shield and lance out for both defense and attack. Now, there was a real battle going on, the two transformers looked over their shoulders at the other.

"What do you think Sent?" Jazz asked, "Decepticons?"

Sentinel trembled but held his ground, determined not to freeze up or get in the way. "I dunno, I've never heard of them attacking something with as many soldiers before."

"Maybe they've decided to try an offensive all-or-nothing." The ninja said, "Bet'cha we could take them."

Sentinel's trembling got worse, he had a very bad feeling about what was going to happen, and as he looked at his partner, he noticed for the first time that Jazz was trembling too, he opened his mouth to say something, but movement caught his attention first, "Behind you!" he warned.

With, before unmatched, swiftness and grace, Jazz vanished into battle, trying to fend off his attacker. But no matter how fast he executed his techniques, the figure he faced dodged them. Jazz gave him a quick look-over when they landed back on the ground. No insignia.

Whoever these guys were they were not Decepticons.

"Yo Sent!" he called, "I could use a little help!"

"Kinda busy!" Was the reply, Jazz risked a glance over his shoulder, where Sentinel indeed had his hands full taking on not one, but two of the mysterious intruders.

He turned away and barely evaded the onslaught of attacks issued by his opponent. The elite-ninja shivered. There was something about these guys… an evil that was beyond the Decepticons. He had the worst feeling that the time he had left the graduation hall would be the last time he saw the bright faces of those young recruits.

--

Ultra Magnus had never seen anything like it before. The attacks from their assailants; seemed to be random, as one would suddenly appear, and then dash away, while another arose to take his place, but there also appeared to a system. A well thought out and coordinated attack. He lifted his hammer to the sky, a lighting bolt appeared and struck the ground around him, more followed, but the attackers kept coming. Ultra Magnus glanced around, he didn't seem to be even fazing them, they watched their comrades fall with out so much as stopping to see if they were alright.

_Defeating these guys will not stop the attack_, he thought, _I have to find the leader._

Easier said then done, they were everywhere, and before his optics he saw them cut down the young Autobots that had joined the battle, with brutality that would make even the notorious Decepticon leader Megatron gag.

Then he was surrounded again. This time there were three of them, two with guns and one with his fists raised for a hand-to-hand challenge. Ultra Magnus cleared them away, he felt like he was being watched, he glanced around again, to try and find the source of his uneasiness._Ah, up there_. There was a mech standing on what was left of one of the buildings, observing him. Fire billowed behind him, the entire place was burning, but the flames appeared to be coming off the mech himself, rather than the chaos around them. Ultra Magnus called up to him, challenging him to come down and face him.

The mech pointed down to him, "Don't turn your back!" he shouted down at the Autobot leader.

Before Ultra Magnus could question him he found himself the target of more grunts, which he again had to fight off. But he was getting tired, he couldn't keep this up long, even the great Ultra Magnus had his limits. Two more appeared, he risked a look back at the mech on the building before, but the stranger had vanished.

He fought them off for minutes that stretched on like hours. He panted, heaved, and energon leaked from his body. Still they had him surrounded, but as he sank to his knees, unable to stand any longer, they did not try to finish him, but merely kept him isolated. Then they dispersed all together. Their system of fight-and-flight still applied apparently.

But he was wrong.

A black shape appeared in the corner of his vision, to quickly for him to respond. But thankfully he wasn't alone.

"Ultra Magnus Sir! Watch out!" Sentinel Prime threw himself between Ultra Magnus and the assailant, his shield brightened and extended with energy, creating an unbreakable barrier between them.

Ultra Magnus pulled himself off his feet and uttered a quick 'thank you' behind his back, as he tried to fend off three more attackers. Then he heard Sentinel scream. The Autobot leader could not bring himself to turn around, as he heard the sound of tearing metal and Sentinel's scream as it became a whimper.

Ultra Magnus was forced from the Elite Guard commander's side as the attack on him continued. They pushed him through the camp, and the ancient Autobot, saw the dismembered scrap of Autobots who had earlier been considered the best of their class. All of them… offline… it made his spark ache. The Autobot leader tried to continue the fight, but he'd lost his strength, and after all he'd just seen and heard… his will to fight.

He collapsed in front of the entrance to the Autobot Academy, quivering like a beaten dog, he looked up once more and saw the mech from before, engulfed in flames, standing before him. Energon spilled from the Autobot's lips as he wanted to say something, but the world was falling apart around him. Ultra Magnus knew this was the end for Autobot Academy; he shut off his optics, and let himself fall into oblivion.

The last thing he heard was a cruel laugh.

--

However it was not the end of Ultra Magnus. He woke to someone calling his name. His optics on-lined and he blinked slowly. The elite-ninja Jazz held him.

"Ultra Magnus sir! Thank Primus! Can you stand?" The cyber-ninja cried in relief, the ninja was leaking from several fractures in his armor and his visor had cracked allowing Ultra Magnus to see one baby blue optic.

Ultra Magnus waved him off, and with a little effort, managed to get to his feet. He looked around him, at the bodies and wreckage. "W-what happened…?" he asked.

"Th-they just left, they were attacking one minute and retreating the next." Jazz panted, "Aw Primus! Who were they? What did they want? Primus…!" he trembled into himself.

"Are there any other s…survivors…?" Ultra Magnus asked, afraid to even _dare_ hope.

Jazz nodded and pressed a button on the side of his helmet, "Yeah, I'm still getting a reading on Sentinel's energy signature, he's probably back that way a little…" he said point the to the direction Ultra Magnus had last seen the Prime.

"C…come on, we have to seen if he's alright." He said weakly, and started to limp to the north east sector of the ruins.

They traveled slowly, both of them limping and having to stop for rest. They did not stay in one place for very long; everywhere there were lifeless cadets that still wore their final facial expression of terror and pain. They felt as though those offline optics were staring into their sparks, trying to regain their lives by draining the energy of the living. Puddles of spilled energon made the ground treacherous; they almost slipped in the liquid that powered their bodies. But the horrors of what they saw before them were nothing compared to what they would see next.

"He…should be around here…somewhere…" Jazz panted as they split up to search for him. Suddenly he gasped, "Sentinel!"

Ultra Magnus turned to where Jazz's cry had come from, limping as fast as he could. Upon seeing the elite guard commander he doubled over and heaved what was left of the energon he'd had only minutes before the attack, and cried silently to himself for the pompous Prime.

Sentinel's entire left arm had been severed and lay before him, still holding his shield electricity crackled at the socket. Sentinel's optics were shut off, and energon ran down his face from them like tears, as well as from his nose, and the corners of his mouth. His entire body was covered with deep scratches and dents. But worst of all was that he was pinned to a rock. A glowing blue sword kept him trapped, and as they moved closer the ninja and the leader, noticed with dismay that it wasn't just any sword.

Sentinel was half standing, half sitting against the rock, skewered to it with his own lance.

Jazz reached out and put a had on Sentinel's shoulder, blue optics online for a moment, and his mouth opened to say something, but all that came out was a gag and energon, "He's alive." Jazz sighed, and looked his friend in the face, "Don't try to talk, alright? We're going to get you down." He turned to Ultra Magnus who nodded.

"Don't move him too fast," he guided, as he took hold of the lance and tugged gently on it, Sentinel gave a short shriek of pain, "Its in deep, I'm sorry Sentinel Prime, this is going to hurt a little…" with that warning he yanked the lance free, Sentinel screamed in agony and dropped now no longer pinned, Jazz caught him.

"Can you walk?" Jazz asked. Sentinel twitched a bit, that was a stupid question really, "Help me." He told Ultra Magnus.

They moved Sentinel to an upright position, and slung his remaining arm around Jazz's shoulder. Ultra Magnus picked up his other arm and did his best to help support Sentinel's injured body.

"Its going to be alright Sent, we'll find help…" Jazz said trying to sound reassuring. Sentinel made a noise, but it was unclear whether it was supposed to be some kind of response or another cry of pain.

They limped onward. Passing the bodies and leaving the reek of death behind them as they escaped the ruins of Autobot Academy, they put the cursed land behind them and trekked toward anywhere. At first Sentinel was able to put one foot in front of the other and at least move with them, but as time passed, his pace got slower, and slower, until his feet just dragged along the ground. Finally Ultra Magnus told them to stop and rest.

"We can't keep this up." he said as they eased Sentinel to the ground. "We need to leave him."

Jazz looked up at his leader in surprise, "But-!" he argued.

"He's fading fast, and slowing us down. He's not going to make it even if we do manage to reach a medic." Ultra Magnus reasoned, "I'm sorry there's noting we can do, his condition is getting worse." He nodded to Sentinel who started to cough up more energon.

Jazz gazed at him a moment then turned back to Ultra Magnus, "But Autobots never leave anyone behind…" he whimpered.

Ultra Magnus shook his head, "There's no time, we have to warn everyone else…find out who… or _what_ that was and… and Sentinel's too badly injured, we shouldn't have even taken him down from the rock, I'm sorry, get some rest and be ready to keep going in fifteen -no- make it ten minutes, we need to keep moving." He turned his back to emphasize that there would be no arguing.

Jazz sat down next to the Autobot commander, "Hey, Sent?" he whispered softly, there was no response other then another coughing fit that spewed energon across both their chassis. Jazz sighed and put a hand on Sentinel's knee, "Listen, I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm sorry for all the times I teased you about your fear of organics, and I really wish that you'd trusted me with the story of why…and I'm sorry that when everyone made fun of you for your clumsy mistakes, I never came to your defense…" Jazz felt tears run down his cheeks as he found more and more things to apologize for, and they fell faster when he saw them start fall from Sentinel's optics too. He could hear him Jazz smiled lightly and decided to move on to a more cheerful subject, but those only made him feel sadder. He spoke a one side conversation with the fallen Autobot for the entire time he had to rest. "…And I'm sorry that we have to leave you here…and well that's it I guess…" he finished with a choke; he stood up as Ultra Magnus told him it was time to move on.

He started toward his leader when he felt a tug and turned his head back to Sentinel again and found that he'd lifted his remaining arm to take his hand. "D…Dun…" Sentinel murmured, "…D-don't leave m-me…dun wanna to be a…alone…" he coughed again, more violently.

"Jazz!" Ultra Magnus cried, "Come on!"

Jazz glanced up at him, "Can't we wait until Sentinel passes…?" he asked, his voice trembled with misery.

Ultra Magnus shook his head, tears visible on his face but not audible in his voice "I wish we could, but there's no time."

Jazz looked back at the bot on the ground, "I'm sorry Sent, we have to go…"

Sentinel held him tight, "D…Dun wanna die…" he croaked.

"I'm sorry…" Jazz said again and shook Sentinel off him.

"J-Jass…" The blue Prime groaned, "D-…do something for me then… tell...tell Optimus something…"

Jazz nodded, "What?"

"T…tell Optimus…I don't hate him…"

"Jazz!"

"I'm coming!" Jazz called over to him, "Alright, I'll tell him, now you just lie here real still and I'm sure you'll go on peacefully…" he turned away and sobbed silently for his fallen comrade as the last words he'd hear from him croaked out once more.

"Puh-lease…Dun wanna die…"

Jazz picked up his pace and walked at Ultra Magnus' side. The two of them could not keep back tears as they left Sentinel further and further behind. "We'll grieve for him properly later…" Ultra Magnus whispered.

"Yeah…" Jazz said needlessly. They walked on in silence.

But as they went farther and farther away from Sentinel, something else drew closer, something that had a plan for the dying bot.

"Dun wanna die…"

**Author's end note:** Cliffhanger! Yeah, that was extremely painful to write, admit it even if you don't like Sentinel, that made you cry. Please review with your questions and comments, flames will be used to cook breakfast.

**Editor's note: **Gosh, no wonder she needed encouragement to write that, even I had to choke a little. As warned above, flames are not accepted. Don't worry about where this is going Zaerith always has a plan.


	2. Darkness

**Author's Note: **Thanks to all who reviewed, this story is going to be getting really dark, and very painful, so if you're looking for a happy ending, I can't guarantee you'll find it here. **  
Warning: **Time-skip, angst, very much angst, violence.

**Disclaimer: **I'm not making any money off this, I don't own the show nor work for Hasbro, I just have the rights to the idea, and that's not even official.

Darkness of the Unknown

Darkness

They'd been found by a group of medics who had been on their way to their first day working at Autobot Academy, and thankfully were able to transport them to serious care. The news of the Academy's fall spread fast. Once out of intensive care and functioning decently, Ultra Magnus and Jazz made plans to go to Earth, the planet was small and out of the way, if the Elite Guard was going to survive, Earth was a good place to hide out; for a while at least. And Jazz could at least pass on Sentinel's last message to Optimus.

The young Prime took the news strangely. Optimus stood still for a long time and the walked over to one of the seats in the plant that he and his team used as a base. He sat down and stared at the ceiling, as if it could tell him that Jazz was lying, that Sentinel was alright and would be coming of the Elite Guard mother ship any minute to pick on him.

Jazz stepped closer to the Prime, and took a seat next to him. They didn't say anything for a long time. Not even the other Autobots in the room seemed to know what to do; they all just sort of stood like zombies, waiting for someone else to break the silence.

"Sentinel…is dead?" Optimus asked softly, like the news was just sinking in. "He's dead?"

Tears welled up behind Jazz's visor and he nodded slowly.

"W-ha…How…Who?" Optimus couldn't put together a full sentence as he started to cry too.

Jazz shook his head and told them about the attack again, carefully explaining how he and Sentinel had been fighting side by side, but forced apart by their attackers. Ultra Magnus picked up after Jazz trailed off, recalling the last he'd heard of Sentinel before they'd been separated as well. That last scream he'd heard could possibly have been when his arm was severed. The Elite Ninja took up again, telling how suddenly the mysterious robots had just started retreating and he'd gone to get Ultra Magnus, then they'd both searched for Sentinel, and found what had been done to him.

"We…carried him as far as we could," The Autobot leader said, "but he was too far gone already, we couldn't save him."

Optimus reached up and wiped his face, but more tears replaced them, and he gazed at the ceiling again. Completely unresponsive to anything anyone said. Finally Ultra Magnus gave an order to leave Optimus alone, let him think things out, and slowly the other Autobots left the room, until it was just Jazz and Optimus left, the Ninja bot had one last thing he needed to tell the Prime.

"He told me to tell you something, you know?" he whispered, the younger Autobot glanced at him questioningly. "Before he died, Sentinel asked me to tell you something." The ninja clarified.

"What?" Optimus croaked.

"That he doesn't…he _didn't_ hate you." he finished.

Optimus' tears which had been silent up to this point broke into quite sobs, as he mourned for his old friend. He'd always known that behind the stuck up attitude, Sentinel had stilled cared about him, but it hurt so much to know that they'd never get to resolve the enmity that had been between them for a thousand stellar cycles. He put his face in his hand and sobbed hard as Jazz stood up and quietly left.

--

A press conference was arranged to inform the citizens of Detroit of their neighbors who had arrived. Many members of the Elite Guard, both familiar and new to Optimus Prime's crew arrived as the conference was not just to greet them, but also a memorial service for the many Autobots lost in the battle that had brought them there.

Especially Sentinel Prime, who had been reported by both Jazz and their high commander Ultra Magnus as having been a true Autobot in his final fight. The Autobots Elite Guard who had known Sentinel all cried silently, ashamed of how they'd teased the germ phobic commander over the years, never really noting how much he'd meant to all of them, or how brave he really was. Grey clouds drifted overhead, reflecting how many of them felt. The perfect weather for the occasion.

The humans of Detroit didn't know Sentinel that well at all, and paid very little attention to his memorial, bordering on being disrespectful until Optimus Prime, the hero they all knew, came up and said his elegy for the fallen Autobot.

"Sentinel and I went to Autobot Academy together. We received our names from the same instructor. He was very friendly in those days, sometimes a bit _too_ friendly, and he often got me dragged along into some dumb little plan of his that would have gotten us into trouble." He paused a moment to think about his next words, "There was another cadet in our group too, a young femme named Elita One, who shared Sentinel's enthusiasm for adventure and danger, I was always the voice of reason, and when I failed to stop the two of them from making the dumbest mistake of their lives, it cost Elita hers. Not to say that Sentinel was at blame for what happened to her, because he had wanted to go back for Elita in that brief moment where we could have, I'd thought it was too risky, and gotten us both out of there, leaving Elita behind. He loved her, that's why he never forgave me, but Jazz told me when he arrived, that Sentinel asked him to give me a message."

The crowd sat silently and listened, waiting for Optimus to tell them what it was, Optimus fought back tears, but they dripped over his optic lenses. "He said to tell me that Sentinel didn't hate me. Those four words, I never got to hear from him, will ring in the back of my head every time I think of him, and I am happy to say I'll always remember him for the good he's done, and even the bad. Because Sentinel was my friend, and I don't hate him either…" his voice cracked on the last sentence, and he couldn't take it anymore, he transformed and drove away, sobbing to the world for his friend, and leaving the people of Detroit confused, because they just didn't understand.

--

Officer Fanzone was perhaps the only human who had mourned for Sentinel, in his own way. It wasn't that he had liked the guy, he was obnoxious and full of himself, but their mutual dislike for the other's species had them developing a friends-but-not-friends relationship. It was 12:00 p.m. well past his shift, so he should have gone home, but he just couldn't, Fanzone drove around the town on the look out for trouble makers trying to get Sentinel Prime's death out of his mind.

"Man." he whispered to himself. "Man… I must be crazy to be out here like this, I'm liable to get in an accident." He tried to make a turn onto a road that would take him home, but a truck came speeding into the lane he was trying to merge into. _Speeding_.

Fanzone turned on his sirens; at least a speeding ticket was better than thinking about death. He honked his horn at the speeder, and shouted out his window. Then he noticed the truck had no driver, must have been one of the new robots in town.

Ultra Magnus had set a rule that all Autobots must obey Earth traffic laws, and Fanzone shouted that out the window to the transformer ahead of him. The truck only sped up. The cop grumbled and hit on his accelerators, "That does it I've had to take this attitude form Sentinel, I'm not going to put up with it from you too." he muttered more to himself then to the transformer ahead of him.

The chase lasted fifteen minutes before he pulled up along the right side him, and rolled down his passenger window to shout out to him, the black truck suddenly slowed down a bit, but as Fanzone started to slowdown to get beside him again, the truck revved up again and veered left into his car, running him off the road. Fanzone tried to keep in control of the car but as it spun his head knocked against the window and knocked him out. Blood seeped from the gash in his head, and the car tumbled down the slope it had run off. It landed upside down, with the cop still in his seat, bleeding and unconscious.

Above the truck had backtracked to see the damage. A laugh rumbled from him and he went into reverse to continue his mission.

**Author's End note:** Here I am with another cliffhanger. Don't get too worried, Fanzone is still alive, he probably will have a little brain damage, but he'll live. As for the mysterious truck; that you will find out in the next chapter so you have to keep reading if you want to know.

**Editor's Note:** I don't have anything particularly interesting to say except that any flames will be put out with my own saliva. Leave your reviews with any questions and/or comments… I wasn't kidding about that saliva thing either so don't even think of flaming.


	3. Strangers in the Rain

**Author's note: **Thanks again to my reviewers, I'm glad you all wanted this to continue, I have a lot of plot twists and surprises planned so keep a watch for this fic's updates. And somebody pointed out to me that I was putting 'Fazone' instead of 'Fanzone', thanks for noticing that, the problem is fixed now.

**Warning:** Angst, Jazz and Prowl friendship scene, very close and personal, _bordering_ on slash, but not really.**  
Disclaimer: **This is too dark to be a kid's show, what makes you think I own it?

Darkness of the Unknown

Strangers in the Rain

Captain Fanzone was found the next day, but the damage to his car from rolling down the hill made it seem that the cop had merely lost control in the dark street. There was nothing to make anyone suspect foul play. But that's not what Jazz had on his mind; he'd barely known the guy after all.

_"Its going to be alright Sent, we'll find help…"_

The words haunted him, he felt as if he had failed -No!- he felt as if he had broken a promise. It ate at his spark and threatened to take everything else too. Guilt. He told Sentinel it would be alright but it wasn't. Ultra Magnus was right, they shouldn't have even taken him out of Autobot Academy, but the thought of never seeing Sentinel in his last moments only made Jazz feel sick, and even worse was that they hadn't even waited for Sentinel to die before they left. His true last moments had been spent alone.

_"Dun wanna die"_

"Stop!" Jazz cried, shaking his head, "Don't think about it, there's nothing ya can do now!"

He trembled, still seeing Sentinel's face as he begged for him to stay, and imagined how much pain he was in, after all… the state they'd found him in…He buried his face in his hands mumbling to himself to try and pull it together. After a few moments he looked up again and jumped.

In front of him was a mirror, behind him a window, reflected in the mirror he saw himself and another figure outside the glass. "You let me die…" The figure mouthed.

Jazz whirled around, but nothing stood behind him. He stood up and glanced outside, if it had been more than a figment of his imagination, it could not have gotten too far. He looked both ways, nothing but storm grey clouds in a darkening sky. He turned back to the mirror, nothing there either. He sat down again, sure his mind had just been playing tricks on him, but that didn't change the way his spark pulsed with dread. He felt like something terrible was about to happen.

The door creaked open, making him jump again. But to his relief it was no phantom, but another Ninja-bot, the washout Prowl that was on Optimus Prime's team. Prowl gave him a slight nod towards the couch, at first Jazz didn't understand, but then he realized the other ninja wanted to talk. The Elite ninja nodded and made room for him to sit.

Prowl stayed quite for a moment while he thought over what he wanted to say, "You're…taking Sentinel's death really hard, you and Optimus both. I've already talked to Optimus and I know why he's so hurt, but I think he'll be fine in time." The smaller ninja looked at him, "But you… you weren't nearly as close to Sentinel as Optimus had been before they stopped talking."

"I was as close as he'd let me be…" Jazz said, "I guess after what happened with Optimus and, what was 'er name? Elita, he just didn't ever want to get close enough to anyone that it would hurt for them to go."

Prowl nodded, "I suppose he didn't mean to make others miss him when he died too."

"Somehow it never occurred to me that any of my friends _could_ die." Jazz said mournfully, "I thought that Sentinel would always be there, and then suddenly he was gone…and in a most painful way too…I couldn't even be with him…!" Jazz broke down again, tears slipped under his visor.

Prowl patted his shoulder, "Its okay…" he said, "The best thing you can do is let it all out." Jazz obeyed and cried, letting Prowl comfort him until he couldn't cry anymore.

He leaned on Prowl and sighed, "Hey," he said suddenly, "Do ya believe that people come back from the dead to haunt people?" Prowl gave him a funny look with his arms around him, and inquired why he'd ask something like that, Jazz relayed to him what he'd experienced just before the motorcycle had entered.

Prowl nodded, "I wouldn't worry," he said, "that's part of the process of grief, you start seeing them, but you have to remember that he's dead, and not really there."

"But he spoke to me…" Jazz muttered.

"Just your mind thinking he did." Prowl explained, "I have a program on this matter if you'd like to watch it, it might help you through this."

Jazz shook his head, "What would ya do to take your mind off of this?" he asked, "That's what's really bugging me, I can't stop thinking about it."

Prowl looked him in the face with a gentle smile, "When I'm angry, sad, or even scared I go out into the woods, I think observing nature helps to keep you calm."

Jazz smiled back and hugged the other ninja, "I think that's what I'll do, thanks." He got up and headed towards the door.

Prowl waved and turned on the TV. "If you still need to talk when you return, you know where to find me." He said as Jazz left, transforming and heading out.

--

As the white car rolled passed the plant Optimus watched him go though a window in his room. He had refused to come out since the conference, and didn't respond when others came trying to comfort him. Well, everyone except Prowl at least, the cycle-bot had a very soothing voice and always knew just what to say, but after that he just wanted to be left alone. And the other Autobots understood.

His current guest however wasn't an Autobot.

Optimus turned away from the window to BlackArachnia, where the half-organic stood. She kept her arms crossed and eyes to the floor, trying to hide her pain. Her body trembled, revealing how deeply wounding the news was. At last she looked up and spoke in a tear-filled croak.

"His that…_really_ how he…he died…?" she asked. A sob escaped her, even as she tried to stay calm.

"That's what they told me…" Optimus replied keeping an awkward distance from her.

BlackArachnia trembled and raised a hand to her mouth to quiet her sobs. She had come to Detroit to once again try to get the key in hopes that it would return her to her original form, but the crowed gathered outside the capital building had drawn her attention. At first she didn't make sense of what was happening and had been about to leave when she'd heard Sentinel's name. Drawn back she listened as an attack on Autobot Academy was described, then to her horror, the death of one of her old and dearest friends. She'd refused to believe it, convinced it was some stunt being pulled to…to….she'd had to accept the truth when she could figure no way for the Autobots to turn the 'death' of one of their own to their advantage.

BlackArachnia stayed and listened to everything after that, her spark broke when Optimus came up and spoke of his shattered friendship with the late Prime.

"What you said was beautiful…" She whispered at last clutching herself tighter, she looked at him; her four eyes sparkled with tears, as she searched for something else to say, but words failed her.

"You didn't hate him either?" Optimus offered.

BlackArachnia shook her head, "I never did," the spider explained, "When you guys left me…I was so mad and angry, I went to see Sentinel, I wanted him to know what had become of me because of you…"

"Like you did with me?" The Prime stated, taking a small step forward.

The techno-organic femme nodded with a sigh "but…when I saw him he'd changed so much, I almost thought he was someone else entirely. I heard him talking to someone else about organics, and mentioning that he'd never forgive you for not letting him go after me…I couldn't do it... I couldn't be mad at him." She rushed forward suddenly and hugged him sobbing loudly, "After that I _never_ wanted him to see me like _this_!" she cried.

Optimus stood still, not sure about what he should do for his mourning friend, it seemed that there was still enough of Elita One in this organic monster to remember her feelings for the mech who had so long ago meant so much to her. He slowly put his arms around her, a small jester of their old friendship, harkening back to when she used to confide in him. As she trembled in his arms Optimus knew only one thing for certain.

Sentinel had been one of BlackArachnia's deepest drives to become normal; now that he was dead the spider might lose the spark to continue looking for a cure.

He wouldn't let that happen.

There was no romantic interest between them, just the ghost of a lost friendship, wishes for revenge and redemption, but most of all regret. The departed Prime, the aspiration to be repair their friendships, had been the link in a chain that kept them from drifting apart altogether, and Optimus worried that this may be the last time he saw BlackArachnia.

He didn't know it, but he would have been right if future circumstances didn't require their cooperation.

The spider's sobs slowed and silenced. She pulled away from him wiping her face, and exhaling deeply. BlackArachnia looked as if she wanted to say one other thing "I should go now…" She whispered, unable to say what she really wanted.

That she didn't want revenge anymore.

Optimus reached out an inviting hand, "Won't you stay?" he half-offered, half-begged. He didn't want to lose another friend so soon.

BlackArachnia shook her head and opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly she cocked her head, her crimson eyes narrowed in confusion, "Do you hear that?" She asked.

The Prime blinked and listened, in the distance came a wail "… A siren…" he muttered turning to the window, "It's coming from the Elite Guard's ship."

He turned around again ready to ask BlackArachnia if she wanted to come with him to check it out, but the femme had left. Disheartened he turned back to the window and looked out it once more. Then the screech of the alarm was too much for his curiosity. He left his room to find the other Autobots had also gone to answer the siren's call. He transformed and drove off towards the ship on the other side of Detroit, noticing only one thing new.

It had begun to rain.

--

Jazz rolled through the streets of Detroit, searching for whatever's signal had appeared on his sensors. He'd been tracing the signal for a good five minutes now. The Elite ninja had been on his way to the nearby forest like Prowl had suggested, but a blip in his circuitry alerted him to a presence in the city, something familiar, but was no Autobot. He sped up; he'd almost caught up with it now.

It turned on an ally way that, according to his scan of the city, branched in two directions. Each leading to a dead end. If what ever he was following knew it was being traced, that was a really stupid place to go. But another thought kept Jazz from gloating to himself about a quick capture.

What _would_ something be doing there?

His spark pulsed with dread. Humankind had always most feared the Unknown; and such was the same for all races, in. Even the Elite Guard shuddered to face what they didn't know or understand, but like everyone else Jazz knew he must conquer the dread of the Unknown and take that first step into understanding.

Rain drops started to fall onto his hood, slowly at first but gaining speed and numbers and sliding off to splatter against the road. Rolling into the alley he transformed and silently approached the fork. He pulled out his weapons and a pair of stasis cuffs, just in case the situation became hostile. "Alright!" he shouted out, "This is the Autobot Elite Guard come out quietly or I will use force."

Movement shifted in the left road in the fork. A shape formed out of the darkness.

To Jazz, it seemed as if time stopped for a moment. The figure walked passed at a normal pace, one foot after another into view as everything else, especially the rain, seemed to have frozen in place as Jazz watched. He couldn't move either. He didn't want to. He feared movement would shatter the world in its sudden still state.

The figure was directly in his eye line now and whispered something as he passed continuing on his way and disappearing from view as he turned into the right fork. Jazz waited, still unable to bring himself to move, but as he became aware of time once again he dashed forward to where the mech disappeared and received another shock.

Nothing.

Gone. No way, could it have appeared at then just disappeared, Jazz checked his systems again to see if he could trace the signal again. But was shocked to find nothing yet again. No reading, it was like it hadn't existed.

An Alarm went off in the distance, back to the Elite Guard. Jazz stood still a moment longer, shaking his head claiming it was his imagination once again and moving on, but something still didn't seem quite right.

As he took a step away, a glitter of light caught his attention, he took another step into the fork and then strode deeper in to investigate a small pool of liquid in the alleyway. No, pool was the wrong word, even if it was small; this was only a few drops really. Jazz bent down and wipe some up on a finger, and examined it closely.

Energon.

He looked up again, his spark pounded against his chassis as it pulsed with fear of the Unknown. Suddenly it sunk into him that the figure had spoke to him as he had passed and its words echoed in his mind like he was hearing them for the first time.

_"Hello Jazz…"_

The alarm still blazed and the Cyber Ninja stood up and looked at the sky. A small crack in the clouds revealed a few stars, Jazz whisper out one question, as if hoping they'd provide the identity of the stranger who had just passed him. "Sen….tinel…?"

But the stars vanished again as the rain clouds shifted back together, leaving his inquiry unanswered.

--

Optimus pushed though the crowd of Autobots that had gathered outside the Elite Guard mother ship. It was strange, he thought, they seemed like so few when they were spread out, and so many when all cramped together. The Prime spotted Bulk-Head easily in the crowd and made his way over to him, catching snippets of conversations as a shoved passed.

"You think…?"

"Decepticon's maybe?"

"…not an attack…"

"I think it's a warning."

Optimus reached Bulk-Head, his spark now pulsing with a dreadful curiosity, but he was relieved to see that, his men where all grouped together; Bulk-Head, Bumblebee, Prowl, Ratchet and even Sari.

"Hey!" He called out to them. They jumped slightly, and turned to face him, their worried expressions unnerved him even more, he stared at them a moment, but then got up the courage to ask, "What's happening?"

They all looked at each other, silently asking someone else to explain, but none of them knew enough he supposed, then Prowl spoke up; giving him the sole information known for sure in the sea of Autobots, that whispered together.

"Someone's been killed." He said grimly.

**Author's end note:** I did it again didn't I? I need to learn to end chapters with something other than cliffhangers. On another note, I want to be clear on something before the next chapter is up, the first part where Jazz 'sees' Sentinel, really _is_ just his mind playing trick, the _second_ time however… Try to keep in mind what details I put in and what I left out. Thanks for reading, see you next chapter^^!

**Editor's note:** I swear I'm trying to get her to give those cliffhangers a rest, but it's just so hard when they work so well with where the story is headed… Cliffhangers aside, please leave your reviews and comments and NO FLAMES, this story is probably one of Zaerith's most prized works, don't ruin it for her.


	4. Names and Faces

**Author's Note: **Sorry about last chap's cliffy, however be glad that I updated again, here's another chapter that was in the original plans, but has survived to see the actually fic, please enjoy ^^

**Warning: **Dark, menacing, Black Truck from chapter 2 identified, and a shocking character death.

**Disclaimer: **This fic is so dark that even Primus looks down at it and says "Gee that's neat, but isn't this a kids show?"… (Like fun it is really) so no, I don't own it.

Darkness of the Unknown

Names and Faces

As time went Optimus on never found out the name of the Autobot who had been found dead, just the he had been part of the investigative team. He never even saw the mech, his remains had been removed, and rumors of how he had met his end flew around the Autobot ranks like birds in a sanctuary, never exactly the same. One said that it had been a suicide, brought on by the paranoia of the recent attack. Another claimed the mech had been killed in a training accident, while more said that he simple fell into a stasis and never woke up. Yet the most widely believe was also the most horrifying, one that said an intruder or even a jealous fellow Autobot had attacked him, and ripped out his spark. The area where he was found was closed off to try to keep everyone calm, but there were still whispers heard amongst of the investigative bots of their colleague's bodily energon all over the walls, and Bumblebee swore he'd seen a glimpse of it when he passed by.

Optimus couldn't be in worse shape. He was still refusing to speak and mourning for Sentinel, the lost hope of ever getting Elita to become an Autobot once again, and now he worried for the safety of Earth. He knew he wasn't the only one, but Optimus couldn't help but feel the death of the analytical-bot and the attack on Autobot Academy were somehow connected. If it was, the Earth was not safe at all. It freaked him out.

So the young Prime had been startled when Ultra Magnus had called for him to meet him.

Optimus went silently to his leader's summon, keeping his optics to the floor and his thoughts in his head. The concerns that wafted through his mind did not need to be voiced after all. He remained silent as Ultra Magnus once again told him how sorry he was for the loss of Sentinel and also apologized for calling him out so suddenly.

"You see." He said softly, "I need you to do me a favor…"

Optimus nodded, "What is it, sir?" he managed to speak.

Ultra Magnus reached into a hidden compartment in a locker by a window and pulled out a small box. He held it gently, as if afraid that it or its contents would shatter at any moment, and passed it just as gently into the young Prime's hands whispering for him to be careful. Optimus took it. It was a little heavy, which he'd learned from Sari meant it was either fragile or expensive.

"What is this?" he asked.

"I can't tell you." Ultra Magnus replied, "Not yet anyway, I need you to take this box," he patted it softly, "and hide it, and if anyone asks about this don't tell them." The older Autobot instructed glancing around like he expected someone to be eavesdropping.

"What? Who would ask? Sir, what's this about?" Optimus was already unnerved but his leader's behavior was making him even more so, he got an odd feeling, like he was being watched.

Ultra Magnus shook his head, "It's probably nothing," he answered at last, "probably an old fool's paranoia, but regardless, until I ask you to- and I know this may be a burden after the loss of your friend, but you _must_ keep this hidden, keep it _safe_. Hopefully this will have been for nothing."

"Bu-" Optimus was about to question further, the door suddenly opened and in came a messenger from investigations.

"Ultra Magnus sir, we just finished the analysis of the energon sample Jazz found." Optimus was ushered out of the room as the bot relayed his report, "It's a match, to Fastback."

_So his name was Fastback…_

As the door shut behind him and Optimus carried away the box Ultra Magnus had entrusted him with, he heard one last thing; he clutched the package closer to him knowing that it was more important than Ultra Magnus had wanted it to seem.

"So it was a warning…"

--

In the city a single figure sat at the edge of a building, silhouetted against the pale silvery light of the moon, the only thing visible was his glowing red optics. The figure stood up, and looked towards the east, where the Autobot Elite Guard had set up their temporary Earth base. The wind whistled a short dirge, as if knowing of the tragedy coming.

"No more stalling." He whispered to the night air, his voice sounded alien even to himself, "Its time."

He leapt from the building into the street and transformed. He mixed in with the traffic and made his way unnoticed by the Autobot's pathetic scanners. He felt no guilt about his upcoming mission, or of his latest. Because even though he recognized the names and faces of the mechs and femmes he had been sent here to antagonize. That's all they where.

Names and Faces.

None of them had any special meaning.

Not anymore.

--

After hours of dealing with his frightened investigators, Ultra Magnus dismissed himself back to his quarters, where only there he could finally grieve for the losses of the Autobots that had recently left this universe.

As a leader he could not show his pain in front of those under his command, he needed to be strong to give them hope, even if he did not have it himself. So it was that only in solitude did he take high-grade energon out of his personal storage and drink his pain away. It hurt to know that he had failed to protect so many young soldiers, who had not even reached the limit of their potential.

But most of all it hurt to know that a friend of his did not get the chance to see how much his death had pained him. Ultra Magnus put the high-grade to his lips and took a swallow, shutting off his optics and wishing he could take back the last moments he'd spent with Sentinel, and at least said good-bye like Jazz had done. True it was no easier for Jazz, as the ninja had gone to the medics several times asking to be checked for damage to his processor and muttering something about spectral visitations.

He finished of the cube and drank two more before he noticed he had company. Slowly turning around he took a moment to identify the intruder and a moment longer to discern whether or not this was real or an apparition. The figure stepped from the shadows, though they seemed as much a part of him as the steel that made up his body, and raised a sword in challenge.

Ultra Magnus shook his head to clear away the fog around his head caused by the high-grade energon. Sentinel stood there still, awaiting his response.

_No_, The Autobot leader thought, shaking his head again,_ Sentinel is dead, who ever this is...is using Sentinel's form to confuse me. _Having made that conclusion Ultra Magnus raised his hammer in acceptance and, and with a crack of lighting and the roll of thunder the battle began.

The stranger struck first. Ultra Magnus parried it easily enough, though he was aware his assailant was testing his responses. He thrust his hammer forward knocking his opponent back a step, Ultra Magnus slashed forward, hoping to catch the Sentinel look-alike in the side, but he was a moment too slow and the attack was dodged.

Just as soon his hammer missed its mark, Ultra Magnus drew back to block another attack from the stranger. They parried attacks back and forth, striking each other once in a while as they danced around the room together. The blue Autobot gasped a bit, trying to keep his head clear, but he was slower then his opponent, and not just because of the high-grade in his systems. The shadows themselves seemed to be against him, as Ultra Magnus found himself having a harder and harder time keeping his opponent's attacks from doing too much damage.

Pretty soon Ultra Magnus found himself being pushed towards the wall; growing too tired to push back he had no choice but to be led like a sheep to the slaughter. With his back against the wall however, Ultra Magnus found the Sentinel imposter's attacks were limited as he had less room to maneuver. The tired old Autobot smiled lightly, confident that his opponent's decision to pin him had been a mistake.

That, conversely, had been his own fatal error.

He'd been to busy protecting himself he had failed to notice the pattern in the assailant's strikes, the rhythm in his footwork, and a moment too late Ultra Magnus realized his folly as his hammer was suddenly thrown from his hands.

Weaponless, he looked at his attacker in complete shock and horror as he recognized the technique that had disarmed him. One he had designed himself for the use of one mech; one which only he and one other even knew existed, for there was only one the technique was made to benefit. One that Sentinel Prime had only managed to successfully execute once.

But now there was no bright proud smile as his attacker's identity was confirmed. Only a cold emptiness, and before Ultra Magnus could even contemplate what would happen next, the black sword was thrust forward, piercing him though the spark.

"S-sentinel…" he gasped. His optics grew wide and bright with pain and shock. He slumped to the floor as the sword was torn back out of him. The memory of when he had pulled Sentinel's lance out of the Prime's battered chassis fluttered briefly in the back of his already fading mind.

The mech leaned down so that they were face to face, "_Nemesis_." He corrected, "I am Nemesis Prime." He reached forward and opened up Ultra Magnus' chassis, the older mech was too weak to protest, but he knew already that he wouldn't find what he was searching for.

And for that he was grateful, as he let himself slip into oblivion.

Nemesis stood up, and put a hand to his com-link. "The matrix isn't here." He said. If he was frustrated by this fact he did not let it show, either in his voice or his posture. On the other side of the link another voice made a jumbled reply. "What? No. I see…Understood, I'm on my way." He cut the link and turned to leave.

A thump behind him made him turn back to the dead Autobot again, his arm had slipped down and hit the floor, energon was rippling across the floor now, and as he gazed at Ultra Magnus, an image flittered across his mind, one from his forgotten old life. For a brief moment the image made him smile, but then sadness welled up in him. He turned away, the image disappeared again. Unnoticed he slipped out of the Autobot ship and vanished into the city.

Driving passed the plant, and passed Sumdac tower, he arrived at another building. He transformed back into his robot mode and jumped. He hopped between two buildings, until he reached the top of one. On the roof, there was a group of three mysterious mechs waiting for him.

Nemesis lowered his gaze as he approached his brethren; standing before them he relayed the full details of his mission. His voice was low and his face wet with more than just rain. Guilt built up, for reasons he did not know, because the memories from his life as Sentinel Prime were lost with his conversion to Nemesis.

"So there old fool is smarter then we gave him credit for..." One of them mused, "Aw well my turn for some fun." He transformed into a motor bike and drove off the side of the building, riding down its wall into the street.

"Very subtle that one." Nemesis muttered sarcastically.

"He doesn't need to be." Another answered, the biggest of the group, "Don't worry, he'll find where the matrix is hidden."

"And when he does," The final figure said, his optics flashed and flames roared to life from his armor. "He'll have no trouble destroying it."

**Author's end note: **I apologize for how long it took to get this chapter done, part of it got deleted and I had to rewrite most of it. For those who need some visual ideas of what Nemesis looks like, DaRkMaYu on DeviantArt did a design for me which wins the gold star for final design, give your compliments to the artist, and on my account there's a picture for an unwritten scene in this fic, check them both out ^^.

**Editor's note: **Part of this chapter's lateness was my fault, sorry guys, but I do a lot of writing too. Zae sorta forgot to mention, but her DA account is the same name as her , so just look for Zaerith-Chan and you'll find her.


	5. The Wish of All

**Author's Note: **Okay for a while this chapter was a _little_ bumpy coming along because I had writer's block, but once I started typing things started flowing a little easier. MIGHT be my last post for a while, I am leaving for Summer break and won't have a computer to work with.

**Warning: **This chap has a little bit more of a ray of hope than the last few, but considering how the last one ended the usual warning applies. Dark, depressing, I still don't know if this fic will actually have a happy ending.

**Disclaimer: **I'm sure if I tried to have any part of this fic put up for an episode of TFA I'd be booted out.

Darkness of the Unknown

The Wish of All

It seemed like a cruel joke, that the morning Ultra Magnus had been found killed had been such a beautiful one. The storm from the night before had blown itself out, and the crisp dawn gave way to warmth and cheerful outlooks. The rain left the roads wet and the sunlight made the streets sparkle, making the hopeful few believe that it was a sign that the worse was over.

Now they feared it had only just begun.

Leaderless they were fearful, even the higher in command were at a loss for what to do as they tried to keep everyone from panicking. However, word had left the Autobot ship of the death of Ultra Magnus and the worry started to plague a few humans, who had the idea that if whoever was responsible for the killing of the Autobot leader, would soon be back to take Detroit and even the entire planet. The Elite Guard tried to assure the humans that whoever was involved had no interest in their planet, but that only enraged a few people who accused the robots of just using their planet as a hide out, calling them cowards.

The Cybertronians had no room to argue.

Debates rose about whether or not to leave. Many thought they were no longer safe on Earth and should spread out, others disagreed saying that they should unify and protect Earth as one, while others countered that staying in one spot would make them an easy target, and more said their Unknown enemy had already proved they could defeat the best of the Autobots already and that they stood more of a chance together than alone. Everyone wanted a leader who could tell them it would be alright.

But above all they wished for hope.

It was Jazz who noticed a faint reading on the scanners as the debates got louder and more out of control. He silenced everyone and announced the coming of more robots, and it was decided that they would greet the newcomers, whether they be Autobots, Decepticons or Unknown. They waited prepared to fight if they had to.

To their relief it was more members of the Elite Guard, the explorative branch, in charge of mapping out uncharted systems and planets and document their findings into files to be sorted though the Council who would in turn, determine whether or not the planet was safe for Cybertronian allegiance.

Nova Prime greeted the others, exclaiming that he and his team had returned as soon as they had heard about the attack on Autobot Academy, and their spirits dampened upon hearing the recent news. "I…I had just sent him a report…" Nova sighed disbelievingly, "I thought he just had never gotten it…"

"What's going on?" A new voice asked.

Jazz looked him over, this one was clearly not part of the group, for he bore no Autobot Elite Guard insignia, nor any insignia for that matter, but was certainly of Cybertronian, or at least very similar origins. The ninja could tell form the tires that the 'bot had recently scanned an earth motorcycle. His face was hidden behind a visor that covered his entire countenance. "Who's this?" Jazz inquired.

"Ah!" Nova Prime gasped and cleared his throat as he pointed to the outsider, "Forgive me, this is _Noisemaze_, he ran into us a few stellar cycles ago. He claims to have once been a Decepticon, but defected and became a spy. According to his story he got caught by his old Decepticon team and tossed into a random transwarp field. We still don't know if this is true, but regardless he's proven himself to be quite valuable to us."

Jazz looked at Noisemaze. With his face hidden his expression was unreadable, but the bot reached out and causally touched his arm, "It alright," his voice had a friendly smile in it; "you can trust me."

Something about Noisemaze didn't sit right with Jazz though, but after a while records were pulled up and indeed there was a Noisemaze listed under their spy ranks, categorized in a file of MIA soldiers, and soon all the Autobots accepted the stranger.

And with the news of more Autobot allies, fear and doubt started to dwindle as everyone gathered to listen to tales of adventure the exploration team had encountered on many strange and exotic planets. Though the femmes were more interested in Noisemaze, his stories of life as a Decepticon, a spy and his survival after being tossed into uncharted space was much more fascinating to them, and the mech was quite a flirt too, and had the girls swooning as he exaggerated parts of his sagas.

Jazz smiled as he looked at the Autobots, now feeling that perhaps for the moment, they were safe. Everyone was smiling as he passed them, and now the warm weather seemed appropriate, he decided now would be an excellent time for a drive. As he exited the temporary base, Jazz decided to make one quick stop at the plant.

"Hey, Optimus?" he asked the young Prime once the others had settled down from his surprise visit.

"Hm?" The other bot turned to him.

"Just wanted to know of ya were do'in any better." The ninja replied as they walked out into the open clear air.

Optimus sighed, "I…suppose…I mean, I'm still sad about Sentinel and a little shocked about Ultra Magnus, especially after he…" He trailed off; Ultra Magnus had specifically told him not to tell _anyone_ of his secret charge, and though the Prime knew he could trust the Elite ninja, it was not Jazz he worried would find out. "But," he continued after a while, "I suppose that the arrival of Nova Prime has lifted my spirits a bit."

"Didn't he train you an' Sent?" Jazz asked.

Optimus nodded, "And Elita."

"Who was Elita anyway?"

Optimus was at first surprised that Sentinel had not mentioned his once-girlfriend to Jazz, but then he supposed the memories must have been too painful for the other Prime to talk about yet. Optimus at first thought to tell Jazz never mind, but seeing the ninja's face he thought it might be one last favor to the late Prime to let his best friend know. Optimus spoke low, for now, this was a story for Jazz alone.

After he finished, Jazz looked up at the sky and with a mix of regret and understanding in his voice whispered, "I see, that's why he was so afraid of organics…"

They turned and looked each other in the face for a moment, a token of mutual respect for their fallen friend. Suddenly there was a noise, and they whipped around and saw a black truck, almost identical to the snowplow that Sentinel had scanned for his use on Earth speed around the corner.

"Did'ja see-?" Jazz muttered turning back to Optimus.

"Uh-huh." The other bot nodded, "Was it…?"

"Maybe we should check it out…?" but when the Ninja and the Prime drove off to catch up with the mysterious truck, it had vanished. Jazz shuddered. He knew what had been wrong with the image of Sentinel he had seen the night before Ultra Magnus had been found. His paint job had been black, and as Jazz thought on it, he somehow remembered his friend's optics as being red. Was it really Sentinel he had been seeing? Or an omen of terrible things to come?

---

Nemesis knelt before The Fallen's angry flames, understanding that what he had done put their position at risk. He nodded unemotionally, ready to accept any punishment.

"Why?" The fiery Mech growled.

"I…" Nemesis muttered in reply, he looked up and spoke louder, "I was simply checking in on Sideways' mission, and I got…Distracted…" It was a pathetic excuse, but it was all he could think of.

The flames emitting from The Fallen's metal body grew hotter with irritation. "You realize that by getting 'distracted' that you risked being seen? You may have endangered the entire mission! What was so important that it was able to 'distract' you?" He demanded.

"…A promise…" The Fallen stared at him, Nemesis blinked himself, confused by his own answer, "I… I recognized them from… before; I wanted to know who they were." He said shaking his head clear of questions and doubts. "It won't happen again." He assured.

The flames died down a little, "Be sure that it doesn't." he growled.

Nemesis nodded again, "What is my punishment?" The assassin asked.

The flames roared to life once more, this time with amusement, "Punishment?" The Fallen laughed, "There is no punishment, not this time anyway."

Nemesis looked him directly in the optic, among their ranks this was an indication of respect, however if one was not of high enough status, doing so could also be very insulting. The other mech gave a slight nod, representing that the respect was mutual. Nemesis wordlessly questioned what the larger mech meant.

"You have a new assignment." The Fallen growled, "There's no time for punishment."

The dark Prime stood, prepared to leave as soon as his orders were issued. "My target?'

"So eager…" A chuckle arose from the flaming robot, and the inferno danced excitedly as he answered "The Bounty Hunter. Lockdown."

**Author's End Note: **Yes I'm cutting it off there; I know I said no more cliffhangers, but they just keep coming! Did I categorize this under suspense? If I did not, maybe I should change it. And yes I do have a reason for killing Lockdown, though I will not tell you directly here, I do want all my readers to know I find the guy _really_ creepy, but my personal bitterness toward him is not why I kill him off, I don't kill people just because I don't like them, its immature and ruins the story for people if they find out a favorite (?) character dies because an author didn't want them included. The reason for Lockdown's death will be given in the next chapter.

**Editor is currently unavailable do to upcoming hand surgery. Wish her a safe recovery, we miss her right hand.**


	6. The Unbearable Truth

**Author's note: **I think it's about time I brought the Cons in. Also, I have an apology in advance for those of you who like Lockdown (The guy freaks me out, but to each their own…) he at least dies well, and has a more worthy death then others in this fic -ahem-. Don't let any of the character death discourage you from reading though, I think this is one of my more intriguing fics.

**Warning: **Robo-gore, character death, the plot thickens.

**Disclaimer: **Insert here

Darkness of the Unknown

The Unbarring Truth

Decepticons did not celebrate the fall of Autobot Academy or the death of Ultra Magnus, and if they did, they were fools. Megatron glared at Starscream as the seeker prowled around, gleefully mocking him about how some Unknowns could destroy the Autobots whereas he had failed. The Decepticon leader chose not to argue though, and allowed Lugnut and Blitzwing to do so for him. He instead thought about the attacks.

Something about them…

He couldn't place it. Something seemed familiar. It drove him nuts.

_Didn't I… once make a plan like that…?_

Few Decepticons knew of their leader's amnesia. Megatron had no memory of his life before the Great War; sometimes while recharging he had dreams that were so real he often thought they were his memories trying to resurface. But as always he could not remember them exactly, and something about them terrified him, for they were more like nightmares. If those shadowy visions were indeed his memories then there were truly things better left forgotten.

Shaking his head he dismissed that idea, growling to himself that it was foolish to think that he could have made such a plan and then forgotten about it, but he could not shake the feeling.

"What's wrong _mighty_ Megatron?" Starscream mocked, "Angry that you could _never_ have pulled that off yourself? Perhaps you should retire, and let someone else do the thinking."

Megatron raised his fusion cannon and fired, hitting the seeker in the leg, causing him to yelp in both surprise and pain. While the air commander whined about his injury, Lugnut praised Megatron on his power and skill. The Decepticon leader shook his head and stood up from his throne, and stalked towards the door, slamming it shut behind him angrily.

Megatron was known to deal with both Starscream's griping and Lugnut's religious-like ravings for hours without losing his temper; his sudden departure made the three Decepticons present exchange confused glances. Starscream was the first to speak, effectively proving that he was not in as much pain as he had been moaning about only seconds before, "What's his problem?" he wondered aloud with a scowl.

The red face of Blitzwing Angry switched to the dominate personality, _"Jou_ are 'is problem!" he shouted pointing an accusing finger.

The face swiveled around again, this time Cold's pale blue face "Perhaps 'e _is_ indeed perplexed by ze successful atac un ze Autobotz. Did eizer ov jou see 'ow frustrated 'e seemed?"

"Our Glorious Leader is just angry that somebody else beat him to destroying those Autobot fools!" Lugnut protested loudly, prepared to go into a full rant on how magnificent Megatron was, and how such a blow could drastically damage his grand ego.

Blitzwing shook his head, Lugnut was too busy thinking Megatron was a God to see his point, even though they both were one of few that knew of Megatron's lack of younglinghood memories. Starscream was unaware of this fact, but the other two did. Cold opened his mouth to make another comment, when a thought flashed through his mind, which changed his personality to his Random face.

"Or maybe 'e jus vent to 'owl at ze moon! It's full tonight jou know!" The crazy aspect of Blitzwing's personality cackled. He had recently seen an Earth movie about Werewolves and seemed convinced that their leader was a Cybertronian version of such a fascinating creature, Megatron did not help to crush this theory by being amused when the Decepticon had proposed the idea, and denied nothing.

Lugnut however, as everyone knew, was convinced that Megatron was of divine origins, and angrily protested Blitzwing's sudden outburst, grabbing a nearby object and throwing it with deadly accuracy into Blitzwing's face. The blow knocked Cold back into place. "Hhmmm." The intelligent part of the triple-changer's personality stroked his chin thoughtfully, "I dun know if zis vill vork, but ve could alvays hire somebody to investigate ze attack."

"What are you saying Blitzwing?" Starscream scoffed, "That we…"

"Hire Lockdown again." Blitzwing finished, "Yes." The Personality switched again to Angry who turned to Lugnut, "And dun jou say _anyzing_! Ze bounty hunter has come zough for uz before an' only failed a few times!"

Lugnut growled, but reluctantly agreed that perhaps that was the best thing they could do to please their leader. "What ever happened to him anyway?" he asked turning to his fellows. They shrugged.

"Come to zink ov it, I haven't seen Blackarachnia in a vhile eizer."

--

The Decepticon hadn't any need to worry about Blackarachnia. The half-organic was still in Detroit, contemplating her future. She didn't feel welcome among the Autobots, especially with the recent goings on, and she no longer felt compelled to work as a Decepticon.

It was Lockdown they would have needed to find. They wanted someone whom they could trust to get their hands dirty and find some things out about the attacks on the Autobots, and if the Decepticon Army was next. Only they didn't know that Lockdown already had the information they wanted.

He was just planning on giving it to the Autobots themselves first.

While the bounty hunter was being held in custody, a group of Autobots discussed what should be done about him. A few wanted to hear what he had to say, but others argued that he was a Decepticon and that they couldn't trust him, some pointed out that he was only labeled as a Decepticon because they most often called upon him for jobs, that he was technically a neutral. There was also the ordeal that Lockdown refused to talk to anyone except Prowl.

"It's too dangerous." Somebody said, Prowl hadn't gotten his name yet, "How do we know he won't try to kill you?"

"If he was going to kill the bot he gave this information to, why would he choose me? I'm not a Prime, or even part of the Elite Guard, there would be no point in killing me." Prowl replied.

The mech had no reply, but someone else did. "I don't believe that he has the information he claims to have." Noisemaze said calmly leaning back against the wall apart from the group. Outside the door there were a few femmes who had started a bit of a fan club for the Decepticon-turned-spy, though he seemed to have lost interest in them.

Prowl looked at Noisemaze, with his face hidden there was no way to tell his expression, the ninja could not see how irritated Noisemaze was, but something in his voice made Prowl suspicious, "Why not?" he asked.

Noisemaze sighed and took a step toward the cluster of arguing Autobots. "Because I have been wandering parts of the universe you do not even know exist, and I've heard a lot of tales, but never anything like what's been happening around here. More than likely he's trying to confuse us, just waiting for us to make a mistake so he can escape."

Prowl scrutinized him, listening carefully to his voice, but nothing in his words sounded of ill intentions, his suspicion from earlier faded away again. Noisemaze had made a few valid points, but Prowl also couldn't help but think about how easily Lockdown had been captured, like he had done it on purpose. Slowly he nodded "But still it wouldn't hurt to hear what he thinks he knows."

Through the visor nobody could see Noisemaze's optics drift toward a window where he had seen some movement. Unaware of the intruder, the Autobots continued to debate about what to do about the bounty hunter. Noisemaze smiled behind his visor. Much arguing remained before the Autobots could announce their total failure to make any progress, and by then it would be too late.

Inside the holding cell Lockdown paced back and forth waiting for those fools to bring Prowl down here, but time was dragging by, and still no word. He still thought that he and Prowl would make an excellent team if he could just talk Prowl into joining him and become a bounty hunter, he had all the right instincts, all that was wrong was he had a conscience in the way. He hoped to crush that puny thing; that was why he refused to speak to anyone else. His failure to cooperate with any other Autobot was also the biggest mistake of his life.

The door opened, the bounty hunter smiled, not turning around. "So," he said, "finally let you down, did they?"

"Not exactly." Prowls voice sounded different. Lockdown paused in his pacing. Something wasn't right, that wasn't Prowl they had sent down. He turned around and came face to face with Nemesis Prime.

He had of course heard that Sentinel Prime had been killed; he was caught completely off guard by the figure before him. However he placed the pieces together quickly from the knowledge he already possessed. "Sold your soul, did you Sentinel?" Lockdown smirked, "Brought yourself to _their_ level?"

Nemesis cocked his head, "I do not know you." he said simply.

"I wouldn't expect you to, we never met. I just heard a lot about you." The bounty hunter chuckled, "What are you doing here anyway?"

The fallen Prime held out his hand, clenching his fist as if holding something, "Buying you silence _bounty hunter_."

Lockdown stared at the proffered hand; during his years of taking missions for upgrades he had come across a mech who had required his skills. His assignment had made him aware of the mechs responsible for the massacre at Autobot Academy, and the treat the universe now faced. However, he was now intrigued by what kind of things he might get from them and took a small step forward, extending his servo to see what the bribe was. The fist opened up, but rather than dropping something into his palm, Nemesis grabbed Lockdown's wrist and pulled it behind his back, shoving the bounty hunter into the wall.

He barked in surprise and struggled to get free, but Nemesis' grip was too strong, much stronger than it should have been. Lips came against his audio sensor, "You would not have stayed quite no matter what we gave you," Nemesis growled, "there's only one way to _silence_ a bounty hunter."

Lockdown shook his wrist, from a secret compartment a hidden dagger appeared in his hand. He thrust back, stabbing Nemesis in the abdomen. The dark Prime grunted, and his grip loosened enough for the bounty hunter to escape. He dashed to the door, slamming his fist against it, trying to get the attention of any Autobot that may be nearby, forget about talking to Prowl, _somebody _needed to know what they were up against. He shrieked in pain as Nemesis struck his shoulder. Hot energon dribbled down his back. Lockdown turned around to face the assassin.

"I…I'll stay quiet." He promised clenching his injured shoulder and glaring at his attacker.

Nemesis lifted his energon covered hand, shadows appeared from his palm, and a sword materialized from them. "You bet you will." He answered with an icy calmness.

The Autobots above were alerted to the intrusion with Lockdown's dying scream. Nemesis vanished silently, not even waiting to see how the Autobots reacted to what was left of the bounty hunter. Gutted like a fish, his innards were sprawled across the floor and energon smeared across the wall, Lockdown lay cut symmetrically into two pieces on the floor. More energon joined his on the floor, this time it was vomit.

Walking unworriedly Nemesis stayed in the less used corridors of the ship, avoiding the crowds of Autobots coming to see what was happening. In one particular hall, Nemesis paused, and entered one of the rooms. It was familiar, something from his past life, his personal quarters, everything still where Sentinel had left it. He turned on the light, and looked around at the room, everything in it had once belonged to him, and many of the things brought back fleeting memories that made his spark ache with longing.

He wandered, carefully examining everything he touched, feeling it with his servos bringing it close to his optics for a complete inspection. There was a stereo, its volume at a low setting that as Sentinel he listened to on occasion. Who did not like music after all? He might not have had a passion for it like some, but as Nemesis hit play and a quite melody began to seep from the speakers he started to hum along with it, remembering the tune from Sentinel's life.

Without hitting stop he moved away from the stereo, to a photo album. Nemesis stared at it, his spark pulsed. There was what he desired, memories from his old life. He picked it up gently and opened it; the first picture was apparently a class photo of when Sentinel had gone to the Academy. There where four bots in the picture. His mirror, Sentinel, the red and blue bot he had seen with Jazz- Optimus- their instructor (he'd seen that guy around while observing the ship, Nova if he recalled correctly) and a femme. He stared at her, his spark started to hurt like nothing else he had known. Why did it make his spark to see that picture? Who was that yellow femme? Why did her smile tear his spark apart?

"I wouldn't just stand there if I were you."

Nemesis set down the folder and turned around, effectively keeping his surprise hidden. "Sideways." He greeted.

"I see your mission went well." Sideways replied with a nod. "They're starting a full-ship search for the assailant. Best get out while you can, lucky I found you first."

Nemesis scoffed. "I'm on my way out." He said, turning and leaving.

As he passed his superior chuckled, "I applaud you," he muttered, "no one else can make such a mess so quickly."

Nemesis laughed quietly, "Buy me some time." He requested.

"Already have." The double agent answered, "There's a five-to-ten minute opening, be quick while no one's at the south exit."

Nemesis nodded, and quickly vanished down the hall, completely forgetting about the stereo he had not turned off and the photo album he had neglected to close. He barely avoided being seen twice, but with the rush he was not noticed as anything more than an ordinary Elite bot wandering the ship. Once outside he transformed and his black truck mode vanished in the darkening night, making him all but invisible against the coming blackness. But the streets were not safe either.

Autobots were patrolling Detroit, keeping their guard up for once; those in the city had already been informed of the assassination. Driving into an alley Nemesis transformed into his bipedal mode and scaled a building. Only two Autobots flew, and as far as Nemesis knew those two were still being held in training, not yet considered to be ready. Rooftops were his best bet if he wanted to escape unnoticed.

He jumped from building to building; the night camouflaged him so even Autobots with their optics to the skies would not have seen him. But it was not an Autobot that spotted him.

Landing on one building Nemesis was surprised to settle next to another figure, for a brief moment their optics, or his optics and the four red eyes of a techno organic robot, met. And in that brief moment recognition lighted in both. The assassin fled, shaking away the strange familiarity he had felt. Though that femme had seemed familiar, but his mind could not place some link as to where or when as it had with everyone else he had recognized. He planned to keep moving and forget.

"Wait!" The femme cried behind him, and Nemesis could feel her following.

He sped up hoping to lose her, but she was quick. And was gaining, pleading him to stop, wait, and come back. Nemesis had no intention of doing so.

Until…

"Sentinel!"

Only then did he freeze in his tracks. A few moments later he heard the femme's heavy breathing as she caught up and slowly turned to face her. The same feeling of familiarity passed though his as he watched her approach. The way she moved, her composer, the way she looked at him. He couldn't place it.

"It _is_ you…!" She panted, that voice seemed familiar as well, "…but…how can it- they said you were dead! Oh, Sentinel…" she took a step toward him, but was forced back again as she gasped in surprise when a sword of shadows was pressed to her throat.

"Identify yourself." Nemesis demanded, though narrowed in frustration his optics were empty and emotionless "Speak femme! Tell me how you know of my previous life."

"B-Blackarachnia… But…but that was not the name _you_ knew me by." She replied with a stutter, "What doe you mean your 'previous life'? Sentinel-" She asked.

Nemesis pressed the sword into the soft organic matter of her neck causing her to inhale sharply in pain. "Don't call me that!" He snapped starting to lose his patience, "My name is _Nemesis_ Prime." Making that clear he softened his tone, if only slightly "Who _are_ you?" He growled.

Blackarachnia stiffened, pain glimmered in her eyes, "Don't you recognize me…even a _little_?" she whimpered

He studied her carefully slowly lowering his sword, tears started to fall down her cheeks, and an image of the yellow femme from the picture in Sentinel's photo album flashed across his mind. A name accompanied it this time.

"Elita…" He muttered. "Elita One…" His optics widened and his spark pulsed as memories came back to him, knocking him to his knees as if they were a physical blow. Blackarachnia cried out and kneeled at his side. Nemesis trembled, and whimpered as if in pain, trying to make sense of the images flooding into him, some happy, some sad, others filled with fear, anger, memories of boring lectures, exciting missions, pride and pain, until he finally looked up. "Elita?" his voice was a softer tone, and his optics were full of emotion.

"Oh Primus, Sentinel!" Blackarachnia cried, "What happened? Are you alright?"

"It's not possible, you're dead!" Sentinel gasped staring at her in horror, "I saw the explosion! Optimus said your energy signature…Ultra Magnus told me-" he stopped suddenly, looking at his hands, noticing they were different. He began to shake, in a flash Sentinel's memories had returned and for a moment made him forget completely about what had transpired recently. His expression of horror deepened as he clenched his hands into fists.

"Sentinel?" Blackarachnia reached forward to touch his shoulder, "What's wrong?"

"I…I" he whimpered, his next words shocked her even more than meeting him had; "I killed Ultra Magnus…"

She was about to say something when the sound of approaching jets reached them, followed by a voice, "There! Someone on building Brother!"

Faster than Blackarachnia could react, Sentinel, or rather Nemesis, dashed away and vanished, she made to follow him, but strong arms clasped her and held her tight. "This Autobot Elite Guard!" An accented bot announced, "You under arrest and to be put in custody for questioning!" Stasis cuffs were placed on her, and as Blackarachnia fell forward towards unending darkness, she saw Nemesis in the distance and whimpered his original name as she passed out.

Nemesis looked back, he was terrified, shocked, but most of all confused. The only thing he could think to do was run. Get somewhere quiet. Think.

So he ran.

Not sure where he was going, he ended up at a ship, one that had belonged to the bounty hunter he had eradicated earlier. Without any trouble he hijacked it and warped though space, searching for a planet that Autobots did not inhabit, nor visit, and where his new associates would not look for him. He needed to be alone. At least until he could figure out what was happening.

**Author's end note: **Wow, I think that was the most emotionally charged thing I have ever written… and I think the longest chapter yet. Hopefully this chapter will have you asking more questions and understanding a little bit more about the characters involved. Please review, and I'm serious this time, I need to know what you people thing, because that may influence what direction this fic takes. Opinions please!

**Editor still out of commission **


	7. Identity

**Author's Note: **Back again, hopefully you weren't thinking I had given up on this story. No, just had a lack of computer and a little writer's block for a while. Glad to be back, and hope you guys are too.

**Warning: **Gore, angst. Repeat.**  
Disclaimer: **The standard applies.

Darkness of the Unknown

Identity

Nemesis panted and held very still. His flight had landed him on a planet unknown to the Autobot alliance, but one he had visited once before. The planet where the giant spiders lived, where Elita had 'died'.

And where his Nightmare had begun.

Compelled to come back here after all these stellar cycles Nemesis had landed his stolen ship (Was it classified as being stolen if the previous owner was now dead?) on the surface and thought to stay there until he had calmed down, but movement caught his attention. He'd seen one of the spiders capture another creature native to the planet, they hadn't seen anything else before so Nemesis had been surprised, but to his horror and disgusted, the spider ripped its head off of struggling shoulders, and could almost hear the greedy sucking as the spider fed on the innards of the defenseless creature.

Enraged, Nemesis had attacked the spider, killing it just as easily as it had killed the creature it had intended to make into a meal. That kill set off something inside him, something dark and destructive that had been waiting one thousand stellar cycles to be set free. He bellowed, his vocals utilized his pain and fury into one single note as he charged into the caverns below, straight into their nest, sword drawn and shield up.

The slaughter began, and now Nemesis sat among the carnage, black innards stretched across the carvers, the reeking odor of death filled the air. Time had lost its meaning as his rampage drove him deeper into the caves. He eventually dropped the shield and sword and used his power to condense and manipulate energy in wild, unrestrained form. Energy bubbles grew and expanded inside the monsters and tore them apart from the inside and, beams akin to razor winds ripped them to shreds and homing wheels cut them into pieces. The black mech shuddered and curled into himself. He hadn't known he was capable of such violence.

Or had he?

It felt good to kill all of those creatures, to hear the noises they made as they fell hopelessly and that wonderful moment when each scream came to a sudden stop. Nemesis smiled. All these stellar cycles he'd been trained use his ability to generate energy fields into the form of a sword and a shield. Weapons meant to protect. Now he knew he had been being held back.

Nemesis pressed his forehead into his knees and emitted a sound, both a laugh and a sob. These creatures deserved everything they had gotten from him and more. Most of the spiders from this nest were splattered across the floor and walls of the cave, the rest had escaped further underground, he'd deal with them later, for now he wanted time alone. He tried to think about his original purpose, to calm down and figure out what had happened, but his thoughts always danced back to his mindless massacre moments before.

Suddenly he heard footsteps, and he held perfectly still, and keeping his mouth shut until he could identify who or what was approaching. They were solid strong footsteps, belonging to someone who was not afraid of what he might find down there. They were evenly paced, not too fast or slow, the stranger was looking for something.

Whoever it was entered the open cavern and paused briefly as the maker of these footsteps surveyed the grotto, in a low voice he whispered "Found him" aloud, either to no one or into a com-link; the footsteps started up again, with the same confident unwavering presence towards the black Prime and stopped in front of him.

"You must be Nemesis Prime then." The new arrival said placing a hand on his shoulder, hearing his name Nemesis looked up and glowered at the mech, he did not recognize him from either his life as Sentinel or his new one as Nemesis. The stranger laughed, "Don't give me that look we were going to meet sooner or later, but your memories revived quicker then we thought. You have some amazing will power. My name is Jhiaxus; I'm going to ask you to come with us."

"Jhiaxus…" Nemesis repeated, the name sounded familiar, but he didn't think too hard on it, "Who are you?" he asked.

Jhiaxus chuckled again, "In time, in time." More footsteps started to approach, and several other mechs entered one familiar face was among them, though it was not his face that made him easily recognized, but the fire that blazed around him.

"Well, you certainly made a mess, didn't you?" The Fallen stated nonchalantly, nodding towards Nemesis. He then looked at Jhiaxus, "Get samples." He ordered, he didn't need to, the other mech was already scooping up some of the black viscera into vial, and giving the flaming mech a look that promptly said 'What do you take me for?', and grunted returning to his work.

Nemesis stood and walked towards The Fallen. "Have I caused you trouble?" he asked.

The Fallen nodded, his optics narrowed "Under different circumstances you would have faced the ultimate penalty, but because of your memories returning we shall let this one slide due to an understanding that this is an emotional impasse, I trust you to understand what will happen the next time you go out of line." The fire burning grew hotter and brightened, "Do not disappoint me again."

"Understood." Nemesis nodded, but something about his posture made The Fallen question him. "What am I?" he asked, "The last thing I remember before I lost my memories was asking Jazz to…" he trailed off recalling his exact words to the Elite Ninja.

_Tell Optimus I don't hate him._

The Fallen put a hand on his shoulder, though covered in flames, the touch did not burn. "I see, this wasn't just about your memories, then?" he laughed, "You are an assassin Nemesis. We planned to let only Ultra Magnus survive, long enough to fill his Autobot soldiers with fear and despair, but we noticed you. A fine, determined, and loyal warrior with so much more potential then you were being allowed to become. We cut Sentinel a deal with his dying breath; we'd hoped that as Nemesis you could reach greater heights. Ultra Magnus took you for granted, and now… well for the moment we'll just say you bend you knee to a new master now."

Nemesis blinked. What The Fallen said seemed true enough. Looking around at what he had done here and the assassinations he had made before his memories had returned, there was no questioning he had indeed become more powerful without Ultra Magnus holding his leash.

"I've got everything I need for my studies." Jhiaxus called, "I'm returning to the ship."

The Fallen nodded, "Come on Nemesis, we have a job to do…" He turned to follow Jhiaxus, but turned back as if feeling Nemesis' hesitation, "Unless of course you need a few days to pull yourself together." It wasn't compassion that filled those words though, more of a mocking sarcasm.

Nemesis took a deep breath. Ultra Magnus, he remembered had let him down, but he could recall Jazz's pain as they had said good bye as Sentinel was dying, the last minute promise to tell his old friend the truth, and his meeting with Elita One, or whoever she was now.

"I'll be back." Nemesis said, "There are a couple of things I'd like to take care of, but I don't intend to disappoint you…Or our master again." He growled.

Behind a battle mask that resembled the armor of a medieval knight, The Fallen smirked; there was truly something in Nemesis that he could trust. "Meet back at the base once you've finished." He ordered. They walked though the tunnels together until Nemesis turned away to get to the ship he had taken from the bounty hunter, no, the bounty hunter was dead, it was his ship now. Accessing its mainframe he set coordinates for Earth. Now that he was beginning to understand his part in what was happening there were a few people close to him he would rather not have get in the way, perhaps he could no longer be the friend they remembered, but he could at least protect them from the nightmares yet to come.

--

At first the Decepticon identified as Blackarachnia asked to speak to Optimus Prime, but the bot had long gone back to the plant, and when she insisted on talking to him she was warned about what had happened to the last bot who had asked specifically for a certain interrogator. So she allowed them to pick someone. The two bots that hat had brought her into custody, jet twins, Autobots capable of flight, had volunteered for the job. Of course they spent almost and hour taking turns explaining what they were doing, and going through Autobot procedures 'one more' time, before they started asking questions primarily about why she was squishy and if it was dangerous.

Meanwhile, Jazz had found something more interesting than the interrogation below. While the investigative branch of the Elite Guard had been busy trying to figure out how an assassin had entered the ship, snuck though it and exited without being noticed. Somebody had let out a whisper that Lockdown had injured his assassin, but the trail of energon had vanished, the wound had not been deep enough and the leaking had stopped.

This, however, wasn't what occupied Jazz's thoughts. On his way back to his personal quarters he was stopped by the sound of music coming from…Sentinel's room? Curious he decided to pay a visit and indeed the room had been entered recently. The stereo was on and playing and a photo album was open. The ninja looked around cautiously. Jazz picked up the photo album and glimpsed through it nervously. Sentinel had never left his room without turning his music off, or putting anything back _exactly_ where he'd had it earlier. His suspicion rose when he glanced down and saw a few droplets of energon on the floor.

The Ninja tensed and glanced around again, if the assassin had been in here he had left already. But what would an assassin be doing in Sentinel's room? The image of Sentinel as he had passed him in the alley flashed across Jazz's mind. The one with black paint and red optics. It couldn't be…

Pictures fell out of the folder and drifted lazily in the air as the album clattered to the floor, landing open, the Academy photo of Nova Minor, Optimus, Sentinel, and Elita stared smiling up at the ceiling as Jazz dashed across the ship towards the cell in which the bounty hunter had been killed, the stereo still playing one of the few songs that on Earth Sentinel had developed a liking for.

_"Put me to sleep Evil Angel,_

_Open you wings Evil Angel, oohh_

_Fly over me Evil Angel…_

_Why can't I breathe Evil Angel?"_

The Ninja darn near ran over a few of his fellow bots and had to jump over a few, but at last he stood panting in the doorway as Zeta Prime of the investigative branch turned to stare at him.

"N-need…to see…r-records…" He gasped leaning on the door for support as his trembling knees threatened to fall out from under him, "o-of, who has entered…and…exited the ship…"

"We'll get to that." Zeta Prime assured, "Right now were trying to determine how the bounty hunter died."

"He was cut… in _half_! How much…more, d-do you need to--know?" Jazz argued, "Records. Now, please."

Zeta turned and looked nervously at his team, "Keep at it." he told them, "I'll be right back."

After the rush to get over here Jazz was glad for the short walk to the main computer, and as Zeta enter password after password to records, the Prime turned to him, "What are you looking for?" he asked.

"We'll see…" Jazz said, with a beep the records popped up and Jazz skimmed the names. There had been a great number of bots going in and out since the assassination, so it took a little while, but at last, "There!" he exclaimed pointing to a name that at the same moment was being uttered by Blackarachnia as she explained what had been doing on the rooftop she had been captured at.

"It's not possible..." Zeta muttered.

"You're telling me…" Jazz replied, "You weren't there when he died." Of course neither had he.

_Sentinel Prime._

--

Optimus returned to the base after searching the city again for the mysterious black truck that he and Jazz had seen. It probably shouldn't, but it bugged him. He hadn't seen anything of it since, it was probably just a coincidence and some tourist passing through Detroit just had a truck similar to Sentinel's alt-mode. But …Officer Fanzone had been released from the hospital a few hours ago, and when he accepted his station back as chief of police he had said something about a black truck driving him off the road.

That _couldn't_ be a coincidence.

Still, it was getting late, he needed recharge and so he'd come back.

_He and Sentinel were sitting back to back on a plain of golden clouds at the edge of an impossible reality, for that is what dreams are, an escape to a world where anything and everything was possible, even talking to a friend that one believed they would never see again. Optimus stared out at the red-orange sky peacefully, waiting as always for his friend to speak first. _

_"Optimus?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"We'll be friends forever right?" Sentinel's voice had a strange twinkle in it, like it always did when he was about to make a joke._

_A creature, similar to a dragon fly buzzed in front of Optimus' face and he brushed it away as he answered, "Of Course Sentinel, forever." He turned to look at his friend with a soft smile, "I never would have left you." Optimus' smile faded and the bright world around him suddenly grew dark. Something about Sentinel wasn't right, but in dreams it's hard to know what._

_"Why did I have to die before we realized that?" Sentinel said as he stood and started to walk away. "Come on ol' buddy," he continued without turning back. The golden clouds became grey and stormy as Optimus stood to catch up to him. But no matter how fast he went Sentinel only seemed to get further ahead…_

Bumblebee couldn't recharge, neither could Bulk-Head, and though nobody at the base had experienced anything quite like this, the two youngsters were taking it harder then anyone else. Sari had come over to spend the night with them, and volunteered to stay awake too, but she had fallen asleep a few hours ago. The friends kept awake playing video games, Phantom Racer was a new favorite and Bulk-Head was actually beating Bumblebee, but suddenly the green bot paused the game.

"Boss-bot?" he said.

Bumblebee jumped causing Sari to wake up, "We weren't playing, I swear!"

"Mmmm?-Wha's goin' on?" Sari yawned, and saw the leader of the small band of Autobot misfits, "Oh, Optimus I didn't know you were back! I'm just staying the night cause I thought--"

"Sentinel, wait up…" Optimus muttered sleepily, his fingers to his com-link like he was calling someone.

The three gave each other questioning looks as Optimus walked by without so much as glancing at them or the TV screen. "What was that about?" Bumblebee asked aloud.

"Dunno…" Bulk-Head answered standing up, "But I dun like it."

"Looked like he was sleepwalking…" Sari added.

The little yellow robot stood up as well, "Let's follow him."

_"Optimus, _this way _you slow-poke!" Sentinel teased his voice ringing in the other Prime's head rather then his audios._

_"Where are we going?" Optimus asked the only reply was a laugh._

_They had left the sky and somehow ended up in a building filled with strange plants it looked almost like a jungle, some of the plants seemed real, and others were obviously fake. Why would Sentinel bring him this way? Up ahead, Optimus saw the door out of the strange building, and going through it he was in a canyon, down the ravine he saw that Sentinel had stopped to wait for him at what appeared to be a ship. He started to run to catch up._

_"What are we doing?" he asked when he reached his friend._

_Sentinel didn't turn back to him, "We're going on an adventure! C'mon Optimus, it'll be fun."_

"Boss-bot!"

Optimus looked back, he blinked a couple of times, shaking away his strange dream "Bumblebee? Bulk-Head? What are you two-?"

"Look out!"

"Glad you could make it." a voice behind him said, Optimus turned around, a bad move. The figure behind him had a hand to his com-link, calling Optimus towards him, and then suddenly a fist came flying at him knocking him to the ground, and, for a moment senseless. The figure kneeled, but Optimus recovered from the first blow and lashed out. His arm was caught as he tried to hit the mech, "Too slow."

Optimus went limp with shock. "_Sentinel!?_" he gasped.

The bot before him smiled, that same goofy grin Sentinel always had back when they'd gone to the academy together, "Sorry ol' buddy," He said, "but this is for your own good." Moving too quickly for Optimus to block, Nemesis bashed his head, knocking his old friend cold.

"Boss-bot!" Bumblebee cried launching at his still unidentified target.

The yellow robot ran head-long into a force field, "Stupid Bumbler!" Nemesis hissed, the moment he dropped the shield, Nemesis kicked him in the chassis knocking him off the ramp and into the green bot behind him, and they both rolled backward.

Nemesis ran to the controls and shut the ramp, and launched the ship for take off.

Outside the cloaking device vanished as Sari ran around the corner, and she watched it hover for a moment before it sped off into the stars.

"Boss-bot!" Bulk-Head cried.

"I…I don't believe it…!" Bumblebee gasped, standing up shakily, "That was Sentinel…It was _Sentinel_!"

They heard running engines and looked back to see Jazz, Prowl, Zeta Prime, Ratchet, Noisemaze and Blackarachnia approaching."What's happening!?" Prowl shouted as he sped forward to meet them.

"He--took Optimus! Just punched 'im out and took him!" Bulk-Head answered.

"Sentinel…" Jazz said as he pulled up and transformed.

"How'd you know?" Bumblebee asked giving the Elite ninja a confused look. The new arrivals glanced at Zeta Prime, who held out the printed records of who had entered and exited the ship. "How's that possible, he…he was offline wasn't he?"

Noisemaze hung back and looked up at the sky, a cloud moved over the moon making the night seem darker then it was, he chuckled, but no one was close enough to hear. Blackarachnia looked up at the sky too, they could still see the craft but it would be beyond their reach by the time they got back to the ship to go after it. She watched it and whispered to the cold night air "Optimus… Sentinel…no…"

**Author's end note: **Here you are, I'm sure some of you have been wondering why this is listed under Nemesis and Jazz, well this is it Optimus is going to be gone for a little while (His really big part it towards the end). I was planning to have one more scene but I figured this was a long enough chapter and the perfect place to cut off…wait a sec, I pulled another cliffhanger didn't I? -Stabs self- Bad Zaerith!

**Editor's note:** First week of school, I'm exhausted. If you see any mistakes that I missed, please tell me.


	8. The Black Halo

**Author's Note: **Feh, my muses are ALL against me! Nemesis is having an identity crisis, Jhiaxus brought his lab equipment to life and gave them all flamethrowers, Unicron is trying to eat my brain, Sideways and the Fallen are both cheating at Go Fish and many other things that I can't tell you about because of spoiler!Issues. If you think this fic is getting crazy just think about what's happening in my head! Chapter title is inspired by the song "The Black Halo" by Kamelot.

**Warning: **Usual, Darkness, death, general confusion, fear, Decepticons…Oh wait, yeah, Decepticons are in this chapter again.

**Disclaimer: **Same deal as my other fics, I own the idea and what happens in the fic is all mine, but I'm not making money off it, only Hasbro gets to do that. -Bastards-

Darkness of the Unknown

The Black Halo

After the abduction of Optimus Prime the witnesses all gathered to discuss what had happened, no one was quite sure what to make of the situation, the young bots were in a flux, panicked at the thought of a vengeful ghost.

"Cool it you two." Jazz ordered, "A ghost wouldn't be able to kill someone let alone kidnap them."

"Are you sure!?" Bumblebee squeaked, "I saw this one movie where the ghost ate people's souls to try and come back to li-"

"That's just a movie!" Prowl snapped, "Now stop it, let's try and think rationally."

"That's right." Noisemaze added, "What did you say happened before your friend was kidnapped? What was he doing? Sleepwalking?"

Bulk-Head nodded, "He was mutter'n some'thin about Sentinel, and look'n like he was giv'n someone a call on th' comm." He explained providing visual aid by putting his servo to his comm-link.

"Hmm." The spy paced back and forth, "I've heard rumors of such a thing- trauma induced hypnotism- but I've never heard of an actual case." Noisemaze was asked to elaborate. "Its an urban legend back in the Decepticon army, so to speak, that when a bot goes through deep emotional distress that while he's recharging, if you can get through his comm-link you can tell him to do something or go somewhere and he'll do it without ever waking up. You said he and this 'Sentinel' were friends right?"

"Yes."

"That explains why he was so easy for…Uh, 'Nemesis?'" He looked over at Blackarachnia for clarification on the name, she nodded, "Right, Nemesis to capture him. He was upset about his friend's death, shocked over Ultra Magnus, and scared to death about everything else that's been happening."

"But why would he kidnap Optimus?" Blackarachnia asked holding herself tight.

"Revenge…" Bumblebee muttered; the older bots glared at him. "Hey, you _did_ tell us that he said he was the one who killed Ultra Magnus!" He pointed out to the spider.

"Optimus wasn't there when Sent died, no where near, and he asked me to tell Optimus that he didn't hate him, he would have no reason to want revenge on 'im. 'Kay?" Jazz told him, "Now no more ghost talk, this was no earth-bound spirit or whatever." He emphasized waving the printed records.

"A ghost wouldn't be recognized by the computer." Zeta assured, "We all have to accept the fact the Sentinel is alive, and running amuck. It explains how he was able to sneak on and off the ship all this time, the computer still had Sentinel registered as crew, it didn't think there was an intruder every time he came on."

"But how can he still be alive?" Jazz asked, "Ultra Magnus and I were both there, we saw what those guys, whoever they were, did to him!"

Noisemaze spoke up again, "You don't know anything about them, they may have powers you couldn't comprehend. I've seen some pretty freaky things in my travels, up to and including reviving mechs so close to death that one more breath could have been their last."

Prowl got a thoughtful look, "So your saying, theoretically, _if_ this mysterious 'they' do have the power to bring bots back from the brink of death, that these Unknown soldiers came through Autobot Academy, slaughtered everyone, and when they came across a survivor thought they might as well bring him back and have him work for them?"

The spy shrugged in response, "You have a better theory?"

Prowl's optics narrowed, both he and Jazz could sense something about their 'ally' that no one else did. But neither could prove any ill intentions, even when they had their suspicions, Noisemaze did nothing that they could call ulterior motives. So despite uneasiness, they had to trust him.

"He didn't remember me." Blackarachnia said aloud, "I mean he _wouldn't_ have recognized me right away, but even when he figured it out it took a moment for him to remember who I was."

"Probably because he was so close to death when they 'revived him' if that's really what happened. The damage done to him and the conversion would have blocked his memory circuits making it hard for him to remember anything from before his revival." Ratchet replied, "But we _still_ haven't figured out what Sentinel or Nemesis, or whoever he is, would want with Optimus if he doesn't hate him or remember him or whatever."

"This is giv'n me a headache." Bulk-Head complained.

Zeta turned to him, "Maybe you and you ghost fearing friend should go recharge, it's not good for you to be here if your still freaked out."

"But-" Bumblebee protested.

"No, 'e's right, lil' buddy," Bulk-Head said, "We ain't being any help here, we'd better go."

Bumblebee looked between the older bots and his big green friend, Sari yawned, finally Bumblebee heaved an exasperated sigh, "Fine, but I want to be filled in on everything in the morning!"

"Actually," Noisemaze stretched out his servos and gave a loud sigh himself, "I think we all better get a little recharge, and talk tomorrow after we've cleared our heads."

There were nods of agreement, and a few muttered worries about what would happen next. Everyone cleared out, heading to their recharge berths thinking Noisemaze had the right idea about talking in the morning, despite that most of them thought they'd never sleep again after what had been happening.

Finally, the spy was left alone. And a spy he was. "All units," he said placing a servo to his comm-link, broadcasting to everyone on his side, "This is _Sideways_; I have an important report…"

--

Optimus felt himself regaining consciousness, his head hurt where he had been struck, but for a moment he didn't know why it did. With a groan he reached up and rubbed his helm still trying to make sense of what had happened. The image of Sentinel as he stood over him with his goofy grin and red optics, flashed in front of his optics.

"You awake?"

Optimus leapt up, optics wide with surprise. There he was, sitting on a chair nearby leaning back casually, tossing a ball of black shadowy energy between his servos. "Sentinel…" he breathed.

"Tsk tsk tsk…" The other Prime scolded teasingly sitting up straighter, "Nemesis. It's _Nemesis_ now." He corrected.

"Nemesis?" Optimus repeated, "How…what…huh?" he shook his head trying to understand what was happening around him.

Nemesis chuckled and tossed the ball of energy to him, "Well you certainly left out, 'why' and 'when' didn't 'cha?" he mocked

Optimus ignored this comment and shook his head again, as he examined the orb "Am I dreaming?" he asked.

"Do you feel pain in dreams?" his old apparently-not-dead friend replied, "Sorry don't mean to answer a question with a question, but I guess some habits are just hard to break."

"How…How is this possible? You- you were…" he couldn't bring himself to actually say it.

"Off-line?" Nemesis finished, he held out his hands, creating more spheres, "Almost."

Optimus watched the black Prime juggle the balls of energy. He remembered when he had first started at the academy and met Sentinel for the first time. The other bot was a stellar cycle ahead of him in class, but it took Sentinel a lot of concentration just to condense enough energy to form _one_ ball of energy that size, and even then his concentration never held that long, he'd had to stay behind while the rest of his class moved up. Only with the unconditional support of Optimus and Elita had he been able to truly focus his power and understand what he needed to do to form practical things like shields and later swords. Nemesis noticed him staring and smiled lightly.

"I never thought I could do something like this when I started at Autobot Academy," he said, as if reading his mind, "Now its second nature, like breathing, or walking, I don't hardly need to concentrate."

"You're alive…" Optimus breathed, "But you were declared off-line!"

Nemesis chuckled again, "What did they say about our attackers?"

"That they were merciless." the younger Prime answered, "Unknown origin, unknown motives, unknown everything. But-"

"They needed survivors," He cut off, fusing his spheres into one black bubble "someone to spread fear among the Autobots. Things didn't quite go as planned seeing as three of us lived, probably worked out better that way. The Fallen said I was noticed during the fight, I've been thinking about what he said about my loyalty and determination, but now I know that's only half the reason they let me live."

Optimus stared at him, and glanced at the ball he had been tossed, "And the other half?"

The black orb Nemesis held in his hands vanished away as he released the energy back into the atmosphere around him, "Despair." He answered, "Despair and resentment towards Ultra Magnus."

Optimus almost dropped the sphere he held, "Resentment towards Ultra Magnus!?" he gasped, "No! That's not true! He was your _idol_! You loved him, you always wanted to fight by his side, you _told_ me that!"

Nemesis' optics filled with sadness, "That was true once, ol' buddy," he answered, "I did use to look up to him, and I'll admit even now parts of me still do, or at least would if he was still alive, but…" he shook his head, "After the incident with Elita, I started to resent him-subconsciously of course, but when he left me to die…I couldn't have hated him more!" The growl that formed in Nemesis' voice sounded unnatural to Optimus, unnatural and terrifying.

"You're lying!" He protested.

"Am I?" There was no questioning the presence of pure hatred in those red optics, Optimus shuddered at the sight of them, but then the emotion lightened, and Nemesis smiled again, "It doesn't matter anymore anyway, he's dead, whether I was aware of how much I wanted to do it or not."

"How much you 'wanted' to do it?" Optimus repeated.

"Are you my echo ol' buddy?" Nemesis laughed.

"_You_ killed him!?"

"Didn't I just tell you that?" The black Prime stood up and took a few steps closer to him, "I did it. Did confessing make him come back? I regret it a little, but for the most part," the growl was back, "I'm _glad_ he's gone."

Optimus' jaw dropped with shock, "No…no, no…nonono" he whimpered curling into a balls so that his face was buried in his knees. "You wouldn't do that."

"I would." Nemesis countered, "I _did_."

The two Primes looked at each other for a moment before Optimus dared open his mouth again, "So what happens now?" he asked, "Are you going to kill me too?"

Again Nemesis laughed, a friendly good-hearted laugh that made the thought of him being capable of killing Ultra Magnus impossible, "C'mon old buddy, did Jazz not give you my message?" He put a hand on his friend's shoulder, "I don't hate you. We'll be friends forever."

_"We'll be friends forever right?"_

The words from Optimus' dream echoed in his head, "Right…" He whispered, "Forever…" It was only then that Optimus took a look around them, he had been on this ship before he realized, it belonged to the bounty hunter, "I suppose this means you're the one who killed Lockdown too, huh?"

Nemesis nodded gravely, "And Fastback, I have a few more assignments that I haven't gotten around to finishing- ha ha- oh, c'mon buddy don't look at me like that! I'm not 'Sentinel Prime the Elite Guard Commander' anymore, I am Nemesis Prime, and I'm an assassin." He turned away suddenly, "Business is business, just be glad none of our friends are on the hit list…Yet."

"Sentin-" Optimus began but Nemesis put up a hand to silence him, and then pointed to his comm, apparently he had a call.

"Nemesis here, what's so important Sideways?" he said turning and walking away. Optimus strained to try and overhear what this was about, but he couldn't much as he tried. He did however managed to catch snippets of what Nemesis said.

_"The Matrix of Leadership is not here like you said Nemesis. My telepathy indicates that none of the Autobots on Earth know of its existence, let alone its location."_

_"Isn't that a good thing?" _This voice belonged to the mech who had earlier introduced himself as Jhiaxus, _"If they don't know it exists then they can't use it can they?"_

This time the Fallen answered,_ "Perhaps, but the key that Sideways mentioned in his last report, I'm concerned about it. You said that no one knows its pull potential, right?"_

_"None that that I have spoken with, nor who's thoughts I have read, not even the girl. What do you know of it, Nemesis?"_

"Only that it was created by a mere fluke of the Allspark's power infusing into an ordinary key or something," Nemesis shrugged ignoring Optimus' request to be filled in on who he was talking to, or what it had to do with Sari's key, "Before I never bothered hearing the whole story."

_"Hmmm…That's unfortunate."_ Jhiaxus muttered, _"What Sideways said earlier about it's reconstructive powers is fascinating…oh, if I could just get my servos on that kind of power…"_

_"Enough Jhiaxus."_ Sideways snapped, _"The last thing we need is for you to go off into one of your 'the quest to create the perfect being' rants."_

"Is there a point to me being included in this?" Nemesis asked suddenly, "I've got work to do, so unless you have a more important assignment for me, I'd like to get back to it."

_"Right, right of course Nemesis, we have a job for you," _The Fallen answered, _"But you are going to need to wait for Sideways to send you the information."_

_"I'm already sending it."_ The virus said. On cue there was a beep at the computer, Nemesis opened the file and skimmed its contents before downloading it into his CPU for further analysis later, and deleting it from the ship's computer.

"Received." He said, "What's the plan?"

_"Jhiaxus is testing one of his experiments," _Sideways explained, _'Its sort of complicated. Where are you? Would you be able to meet me on Mars for a full account?"_

"Sure."

_"Excellent."_ The Fallen said, _"Now that everything's been arranged, we must get into action."_

_"Wait,"_the spy interjected, _"About my proposal last time, the femme bot?"_

_"The one who is missing memories?"_ The Fallen asked.

"Arcee?" Nemesis specified.

_"Yes that one."_ Sideways answered.

_"I suppose." _The Fallen mused, _"You come up with some crazy plans Sideways, but I don't see a downside to this one."_

"What plan?" the black Prime asked, "What do you want her for?"

_"In due time."_

For a while the mechs continued to discuss their arrangement until it was determined that Nemesis and Sideways would meet on Mars relatively soon. The black Prime turned back to his prisoner and friend, "Well old buddy, I need to be going, so I just gotta-"

"What are you doing?" Optimus interjected, "What are they planning Sentinel?"

The red optics narrowed with annoyance "_Nemesis_," he corrected again, "And if I told you that Optimus, _then _I would kill you."

"Are you going back to Earth?"

Nemesis nodded, "Have to make a quick stop first, but eventually, yes."

"I can't let you do that!" Optimus protested, "My team-my _friends_- are there, I won't let you and whoever your working for now hurt them!"

"Ha ha, 'can't let me do that'? Ha, you make it sound like you're in a position to stop us."

Optimus was about to ask him what he meant when the ball of black energy in his hand extended and wrapped itself around him, binding him like coils of rope. "Hey!" he cried out in surprise before more energy wrapped over him mouth like a gag. He struggled against his restraints, but the more he did the tighter they became. Optimus coughed, wanting to cry. He knew that Nemesis was tightening them himself.

Nemesis took a few steps closer, and then Optimus realized that he was not lying on a recharge berth, but a platform from a stasis pod. He tried to shout from behind the gag, but his cry was a muffle that even he didn't understand. Nemesis pushed a button and glass slid over him, an instant later the stasis pod started up and he felt himself falling into slumber.

Nemesis looked up as his old friend faded into oblivion with a faint friendly smile on his countenance, but his optics were full of sadness, "Sorry Optimus, but you'll never be able to defeat me," As soon as the other Prime was deep in stasis lock, he dropped the energy binds that held him, the assassin turned away towards the ships main computer to set coordinates for Mars, "Not so long as you still think of me as Sentinel Prime."

--

Dawn broke over the Autobot base. Nobody had noticed the supposed Decepticon-turned-spy, slip out and back into the base. Nobody knew his true motives. Nobody knew of the terrible plan about to be put into action. Nobody would be prepared.

Sideways stuck to the shadows a moment, glancing out a window to the sky, looking past the clouds, past Mars from which he had just returned, past the distant stars, to a secret location from where he had originally come. He tore his optics away, and slid back into his disguise as Noisemaze.

He was no Cybertronian, nor any known transforming species, as far as he knew he was the only one of his kind in existence; a being capable of taking on any form he pleased, though he was not entirely aware of what else he could do. Perhaps it had something to do with how he had been born.

"Noisemaze!" he almost jumped at the sound of a femme's voice. He turned around, an orange femme smiled as he approached, "Couldn't recharge either?" If she had been organic the femme would have been blushing, another one of his admirers he figured, probably ready to die from happiness at the fact that she was alone with him. He, however, had long grown tired of this game.

She would die, but not from happiness.

He licked the energon from his sword and continued down the hall, leaving the body of the femme in plain sight. It wouldn't matter, in just a few moments he would reveal himself, and the Unknowns would finally have a name.

_Unicronian_.

He stopped at a door. It was locked, and he did not have clearance to enter, but since when did he need clearance for anything? His body broke down into tiny particles, infusing into the computer in his virus form; he quickly dashed through cyberspace, exiting out from the computer on the other side of the door.

The pink femme known as Arcee lay across the berth, her helm open and wires attached to her processor, as if the Autobot Elite Guard were _actually_ trying to restore her memories. The Elite Guard had long been corrupt, long forgotten the code in which it had forged, at no fault of those currently in it, but their predecessors, their beloved Ultra Magnus, those who forsook their duty to win the war with the Decepticons.

No matter. With memories, Arcee would have no reason to be allowed life. Without them, she was now a useful tool. He approached the computer and, as he had several times during his stay among the Autobots, he tapped in a few key passwords that overran the main program, the door opened at his command, allowing Nemesis and a group of nameless soldiers -pawns- to enter. A few more clacks at the keyboard and the wires retracted from Arcee's head, and her helm snapped back into its proper place.

Blue optics began to online.

The femme blinked a few times before sitting up and noticing her company. She did not have memories from her life before her mind had been wiped, but she recognized Noisemaze from his previous visits. "Good evening Noisemaze." She greeted.

"_Morning_." He corrected. He turned to his companion, "Ready the strike team." He ordered. The other mech nodded, and ordered for the others to follow.

"Strike team?" Arcee asked confusedly "Is there a battle? What's going on Noisemaze?"

She froze and could only stare in horror as Noisemaze began to change before her optics. Not transform, but _change _into another entity entirely. His entire body reformatted, his face was unveiled for a brief moment to show gleaming red optics, filled with malice, a purple visor slid in front of them from his helmet. His fingers grew vise-like, tires turned into wings paint melted and reformed into a new color scheme.

"Surprised?" It was the same voice, but instead of sounding friendly and ready to share another story as he had done the last couple of weeks, making her trust him, Noisemaze's words only terrified her. His hand trust forward suddenly, and clasped her around the throat.

Arcee gasped and struggled against his grip but only tired herself out more and more until she felt could no longer stay online. "Noisemaze…" she breathed.

"Sideways!" A new voice called from over a comm-link, probably belonging to the same mech who had been in here only a moment before "What are your orders?"

Noisemaze, no, _Sideways_, cocked his head as he contemplated his answer. "Stick to the plan," He growled. Arcee choked and began to pass out, the last thing she heard before falling into oblivion was Sideways' amused chuckle. She collapsed into his arms; he picked her up without effort, "I've got the femme, taking her back to the base." He announced to his allies, "Nemesis, the rest is up to you, remember, we're just drawing out the Decepticons, don't start another massacre."

"Understood."

Outside already Unicronians were swarming. Groggy terrified Autobots attempted to fight them, but they were outmatched. Those on the ground would hardly stand a chance, but in the air, Jetfire and Jetstorm seemed to have better luck. Jazz swept threw the crowd knocking back attackers who shouted out their allegiance. He didn't know who Unicron was, but the name alone filled him with terror. He occasionally froze; flashes of the last attack came back to him. So much death, no mercy... It took a few moments for him to realize what was different about the first attack and this one.

They weren't butchering them.

_They aren't trying to defeat us…are they…_distracting_ us?_

He was going to contemplate further, but movement to his right caught his attention. "Sentinel!" He cried recognizing the figure.

His friend did not smile, instead he frowned, "I'm getting tired of having to correct you guys all the time." He pointed to his chassis, where he bore no Autobot Elite Guard insignia, but a bluish-green mark with no emblem over his black chest plating.

"Nemesis…" The Cyber Ninja corrected himself, earning a nod from the former Elite Guard Commander.

"Optics on the battle Jazz." The assassin warned.

Turning around just in time to avoid getting ambushed by two attackers Jazz fought them off, and turned back to Nemesis, intending to ask him what he had done with Optimus. But the Black Prime had vanished; he thought he had something more important to do then explain himself to another old friend.

--

Meanwhile, unaware of what was happening in Detroit only a few miles away, the Decepticon Blitzwing watched his leader pace back and forth across the throne room, occasionally stopping at the wall and reaching forward as if to touch it, but half way he would stop, retract his arm and continue pacing. He'd been at it since noon the day before. Trying to remember something.

"It was important…" He muttered. "Important…_crucial_."

Lugnut stomped in, followed by the Constructicons, peeking in on the Decepticon leader as he continued his awkward behavior. "The boss ain't do'in any better, eh?" Scrapper asked.

"Of course not, stupid!" Mixmaster pointed out, "Eh, Lugnut, what'sa matt're with 'im?"

"Absolutely nothing!" He declared, prepared to go into another rant, when Blitzwing hushed him. The Blue-faced personality pointed to Megatron and switched to the red faced Angry personality, who shouted in a low voice that their leader didn't want to be disrupted.

"Disrupted from what?" The voice was Starscream's, as the seeker shoved his way in to see.

"Something important…" Megatron continued to mutter, "Gotta remember…Who was it…?"

Starscream pushed his way forward and walked causally towards the overlord, unafraid of what Megatron _might_ do to him, despite Blitzwing's angry calls for him to get his aft back here.

Megatron stopped at the wall, his optics lit with coming realization, he could feel it, whatever it was he was trying to remember was coming back. "…Jhiaxus…" he breathed. _ Where have I heard that name…Who is he…?_

"Having some trouble _Mighty Megatron_? Forget where you left your Allspark fragme-" he was cut off by a pointblank shot from Megatron's fusion cannon, which would have been fatal had it not been for the piece of the Allspark embedded in Starscream's forehead. He heard Megatron call him 'imbecile' before everything went black.

When he came to, the blue-faced Blitzwing was standing over him. "I varned jou." He said calmly.

"What the _frag_!?!" Starscream cried standing up, "I hadn't even done _anything_, why'd he shoot me!?"

"Vhy _vouldn't_ he shoot jou!" Angry Blitzwing shouted, poking him hard in the chassis. The face swirled, to the happy-go-lucky Random Blitzwing, "Jou're such a goot target! Hoo-ha-ha!" Starscream ignored him as he continued to cackle, until the calm blue face returned, "I zink 'e shot you because 'e- and I'm quoting- 'almost had it', vhatever 'it' is."

"Serves you right for disturbing our _glorious leader_!" Lugnut announced.

"Eh Lugnut! Zip it will ya!" Mixmaster cried from the door where he and his buddy were still watching Megatron.

"Eeek! Gahhh, uh guys? Back up, he's coming!" Scrapper added scooting away from the door.

The room silenced as Megatron entered. He stared at them before opening his mouth to announce his plan, "Transform," he ordered, doing so himself, "I need to talk to the Autobots."

**Author's End Note:** Yeah the Decepticons are going to arrive in the middle of a battle. How does Megatron know Jhiaxus? Find out next chapter, as well as what the Unicronians are planning to do with Arcee, and the origins of Sideways! (Mind you this could take a while; I'm a bit of a slow writer.) Also, my editor has been out of commission foe the last month, so please forgive any spelling or grammar errors I might have made.


	9. Beginning of the End

**Author's Note: **Yeah, about time I got back to work. Sorry it's been slow, I really ought to finish multi-chapter fics before I start more of them (Is currently in the middle of, like six). Anyhoo, glad you're back for the new chapter, I promise it'll be good. And I know I promised at the end of last chapter a couple of things, but I think if I wrote them in it would make this one too long, so I'm saving them for next time.

**Warning: **Evil plans of evil. Birth of Galvatron.**  
Disclaimer: **If I attempt ownership, my toy Unicron will attempt to devour my brain. Better safe then sorry.

Darkness of the Unknown

Beginning of the End

Jazz scoured the masses of Autobots and 'Unicronians' searching for Nemesis, the black Prime had apparently vanished. At last Jazz spotted him, the assassin perched on top of a building watching the battle rather then participating in it. He leapt, scaling the building with speed and grace. Nemesis glanced at him before turning his attention back to the fight.

"Nemesis…" Jazz called out.

"Yeah?" He didn't turn around.

The ninja took a few steps toward his friend. Were they still friends? "What happened to you?" He asked, "What did you do with Optimus?"

"You know perfectly well what happened to me Jazz." The black Prime stood up at last and turned to face him. "You left Sentinel. He died, and from that I was created."

Jazz reached forward, "And Optimus?"

Nemesis laughed, friendly but sad, "Optimus is fine." He assured "He's safer then you are."

At that precise moment a projectile weapon came hurtling toward them, Jazz jumped, fearing that he would not make it in time to dodge it. Nemesis didn't flinch. Just before impact, a black barrier rose along the ledge of the building, the assassin had created a shield to protect them. Both of them.

"Why did you do that?" The Elite ninja asked, "You could have just protected yourself and let that destroy me." Was it too much to hope that Sentinel was still in Nemesis somewhere?

Nemesis smiled, "I _could_ have," he said, "but I want you alive."

"Why?"

"I'd love to tell you, buddy," The Assassin replied, "But I have a job to do." He turned and was about to leap off the edge of the building, back into the battle when another voice rung out.

"Nemesis!" Jazz glanced over at Blackarachnia as she dashed towards them. The Black Prime had paused, waiting for her to continue.

Finally it became apparent she wouldn't, Nemesis turned around to face her with a smile, "Hey Elita, look," he teased pointing to their black paint, "We match."

"Nemesis," She said stepping towards him lightly, "Sentinel please…"

"Sorry!" He interrupted, "Gotta run! And you better get back down there too, they're here!" Nemesis jumped before either ninja or spider could move.

"Who's here?" Jazz shouted after him, but Nemesis was gone.

The two glanced at each other, Jazz was about to say something when Blackarachnia's eyes widened and she pointed behind him, "Look!" she cried.

Fearing the worst the white Autobot complied, and was almost relieved to see Decepticons flying in, and joining the battle, apparently on their side. His relief was outmatched by complete and utter confusion. What were the Decepticons doing here?

Jazz felt a chill in his core, remembering his earlier thought about them being distracted. The battle continued, the Decepticons recently joined showed no mercy, the fire power they possessed kept the Unicronians at bay. Yet something wasn't right, and Jazz knew it. He made his way toward the Decepticon leader intending to ask a few questions.

But someone else reached him first.

"Megatron sir," Jazz recognized the bot approaching. LongArm? What was he doing? "I must say it's a relief to see you here. May I join you?"

"Don't ask Shockwave." Megatron replied cutting down a Unicronian with a sword and blasting another with his cannon. "Just do!"

LongArm changed like how Noisemaze had changed in front of Arcee, into someone else. Shockwave's face was hidden, but he appeared to be delighted to be battling alongside Megatron. Jazz continued forward, he had some questions for LongArm now too, but they could wait.

"Yo Megs!" He said, "What brings the honor?"

"Shut it, Autobot." Megatron snapped

"Hey, I just want to know what brings ya here." A Unicronian appeared behind Megatron; the ninja saw him first and took him down.

"And just who might you be?" Megatron asked raising his optic ridge, clearly impressed by Jazz's skill, despite his loathing.

"Autobot Elite Ninja Jazz." Shockwave informed his leader. "Best in his class."

"I want to help." The white bot offered.

"You can help by staying out of the way." Megatron replied blasting back another Unicronian.

"But-" Jazz protested.

"Go away Jazz," Shockwave told him, "We have a handle on these guys. Help them!" he pointed behind him, where the ninja saw Optimus' team, leaderless, confused and surrounded. Shockwave had a point, the Decepticons were fine, it was the other Autobots that needed as much assistance as possible.

Quickly Jazz went to help.

---

Nemesis watched over Jazz while he fought. Two Autobots, two he recognized that he had trained himself, rush toward him, terrified, but confident they could take on their old commander. Too bad they weren't. He was sorely disappointed in them, as he dodged their techniques with ease; he realized how pathetic Autobots were. Sadly, he spread shadows along the ground beneath them. They were trained to use certain battle methods, as he had been, they expected him to fight fairly, so they wouldn't be prepared for the black spikes they would impale them from below.

As Sentinel, he'd always known he was strong, but he was restrained by those codes of combat, but now, no longer bound by them as Nemesis, for the first time he felt powerful. Being strong and being powerful were different things, and though physical appearance was the only true change in him, Nemesis felt the Unicronians had given him his power.

And he had to admit; he liked it.

Nemesis glanced up at a taller building, where everyone else was too busy to look. He could barely see, but there he was, Jhiaxus was silhouetted against the sky atop its roof. The assassin glanced around him at the battle. The Decepticons were here, what was Jhiaxus waiting for? _Perform your experiment already_, he thought impatiently.

He thought to soon, just as soon as he had a bloodcurdling scream echoed across the battlefield.

--

The first thing Arcee became aware of was a soft beeping. At first she thought nothing of it, after all every time Noisemaze woke her, the beeping machinery was the first thing she noticed. Then other sense came, and she realized something wasn't right. Memories came last and her optics on-lined with a jolt.

_Noisemaze!_

"Are you awake?"

She turned the voice she had known as belonging 'Noisemaze' belonged really to the mech behind her. Sideways, if she recalled correctly. "What's happening?" She asked in a panic, "Where are we?"

"Calm down, calm down." Sideways whispered gently, "I'm sorry Arcee, but that's classified."

The femme shivered as she noticed other mysterious figures in the room. From the looks of things, this was a medical bay, and they were medics, she turned to Sideways again, "I trusted you." she whimpered.

"Not a mistake, Arcee." Sideways assured, "I can't tell you what's happening-not yet anyway- but I want you to know something. Those other Autobots you trusted, the Elite Guard who told you they would restore your memory, they weren't going to."

She blinked at him, "What do you mean?"

The virus pulled something out from a storage compartment, a holo-vid of some kind, "Do you know how long you have been in stasis?"

"…No." Primus, how long HAD she been? Was the war still going on, is that what he'd meant earlier about strike teams?

Sideways hit a button on the video, at first it was a bunch of static, but then images appeared. The medic she had been told was in charge of restoring her memories and Ultra Magnus became visible, and their voices, quite at first, slowly became audible.

_"What of Arcee?" _The medic asked.

_"Hmm?" _

_ "The Intel 'bot that lost her memories." _He clarified.

_ "Oh, right…" _Ultra Magnus was quite for a moment,_ "You managed to retrieve all the data on the Omega project, right?"_

_ "Yessir. It's all saved in the main computers, only a select few can access it."_

_ "That's all that matters." _The leader of the Autobots replied_, "I hope to Primus we never need to use something like Omega Supreme again, but as long as the data is safe, I don't care what happens to the femme."_

_ "Sir? We promised…"_

_ "That was stellar cycles ago, and you've only managed to retrieve her most basic programs, and the Omega project." _Ultra Magnus explained,_ "The project is too expensive, and not going anywhere, so far it's just been a waste of time. You may continue to try and restore her memory if you wish, but it's no longer your top assignment. Understood?"_

_ "Understood sir." _

Sideways shut off the video as Arcee's jaw dropped in shock at what she had just heard, "That was recorded twenty thousand stellar cycles ago," He said, "And your memories were erased even longer ago then that."

"B-but…" Arcee couldn't think, this was too much. She looked up at him, "You…Why?"

The mech cocked his head, "Why? Why would they do that? Or why did we take you?"

The pink femme nodded, "Both… if you're allowed to tell me."

"Well," Sideways contemplated his answer, "The Autobots were desperate to win their war with the Decepticons, I'm not sure exactly why they decided their promise to you was no longer important, but you can trust _me_ when I tell you that the Elite Guard has long been corrupt, perhaps you can talk to Nemesis when he returns." He replied, "As for us, well, we don't care about restoring your memory either, in fact your blank slate is exactly why you're here."

"What?" Arcee asked.

"Let me put it this way," Sideways explained, "If you had your memories, we'd just kill you like everyone else." he looked her in the optics "Would you prefer to have your _old _ memories, and die with the others? Or…" he waved his arm to indicate the others in the room, "Would you rather join _us_ and make new ones?"

Arcee gaped, "A-are you Decepticons?"

"No." Sideways didn't elaborate, but simple turned towards the door, beckoning the medics to follow, "There's no rush, you may have time to think about it. The choice is yours, make a good one."

Then she was left alone, to think about all that had been shown and told to her. She thought at first to escape back to the Autobots, but she remembered how she had just been forgotten about. Besides, she didn't know where _she_ was let alone how to get back to the Autobots from here. Then she thought about the offer she had received. Who were they? Would joining them be a good idea either?

She lied back across the medical berth she was sitting on. She had a tough decision before her, but even as she contemplated, she knew that she'd already chosen what she wanted.

--

"Somebody stop him!" A field medic shouted "He's going to tear his processor out!"

Megatron continued to scream, and flail around uncontrollably; firing at everyone who approached him, and clawing at his head, his helm lay discarded on the ground a few yards away. Jazz himself had almost been fried twice. The Ninja was unnerved, both by Megatron's sudden outburst of sporadic behavior, and that the Unicronians had retreated the moment Megatron's scream had first rung out.

Two Decepticons and an Autobot circled around him in a triangle, he eyed them, snarling between cries of horror and pain. One of the Decepticons dashed forward, Megatron's cannon hit him square in the face, the second followed, thrown back by Megatron, and the Autobot barely escaped being sliced in half.

This had been going on for sometime and neither Autobot nor Decepticon could explain why, as Megatron continued to try and mutilate himself. "Stop!" He'd scream on occasion "Stop it!" When he was firing on anyone in particular, he'd shoot randomly into the sky at apparently nothing.

"Megatron!" Jazz shouted, "Cool it!"

"No, don't!" Megatron sank to the ground, knees buried in the smoldering earth, "Stop! Please, stop it!"

"I am so _sick_ of this!" the voice belonged to the Decepticon second command, Starscream, "You want it to stop, _fine_, I'll make it _stop_!" He lifted up his null-ray.

"No!" Jazz shouted, along with at least three of the Decepticons on the field.

Too late.

Starscream had fired, the shot hit Megatron in the head and without the protection of his helm, his processor was exposed to the blow. The Decepticon leader screamed again, and toppled fully to the ground still groaning but growing increasingly weak.

"Decepticons!" Starscream shouted, "Our _mighty_ leader has cracked under the pressure of the situation, I _Starscream_ hereby take command of the Army! Back to the base, now!"

A few left as soon as the order was called. Lugnut protested, claiming that even in death there was no command but Megatron's, and grudgingly left his leader behind. Shockwave stayed a moment longer, walking over and examining Megatron, and whispering something before he too turned away. "I'm sorry sir, but there's nothing I- _anyone_ can do…"

"Shockwave…" Megatron muttered weakly as his friend paused, "Get out of here…while you can."

"Yessir."

The Autobots stood in shock at what had just happened, Megatron's optics went out as Jazz watched. Suddenly he became aware that not everybody was looking at the fallen Decepticon. He turned around to see everyone staring at _him_.

"What?" he asked.

"Jazz," Bumblebee stepped forward, "You, Ultra Magnus, and Sentinel were the only ones to fight them and live last time. Ultra Magnus is dead, and now Sentinel's one of them too…"

"And…?" Jazz was sure he knew what the little yellow bot was going to say, but he was almost afraid to hear it.

Prowl took up when Bumblebee couldn't find the words, "Whether you like it, or feel ready for it, or not we've all sort of accepted you as the new leader. We don't know what to do… Jazz, what do you suggest?"

The ninja, promoted to leader, glanced back at Megatron, the Decepticon was not quite off-line, but Jazz saw Sentinel staring back at him in their last moments before they'd left him, and he had become Nemesis. Jazz came to a startling realization, if they could bring Sentinel back from the brink, they could probably do the same with Megatron.

"We'll stay here…" he said, "Until Megatron passes; we can't afford it if they revive them on their side too. Then, I think for sure the humans won't be happy about what just happened here, so everyone pack up, it's not safe for, or on Earth anymore, we need to get out of here."

There was a murmur of agreement among the Autobots. A field medic, designation Red Alert approached Megatron cautiously; as if afraid he'd recover and start firing again. She leaned down, and examined him. They waited, and waited, clouds rolled slowly over head, and the sun began her retreat towards the horizon, but at last Red Alert stood.

"He's gone." She announced.

Nobody moved for a while, but finally the Autobots began to disperse. The crew that had been on Earth went back to their power plant base to pack up a few things, then go say good bye to their friend Sari and her father. Meanwhile Jazz thought it important to tell the mayor what had happened and their decision to leave.

--

Back at Megatron's lifeless shell, figures approached, Nemesis in the lead, Jhiaxus not far behind. "Is this what you wanted to test?" the black Prime asked.

"Yes," Jhiaxus replied, a pleased grin spread across his face plates. "Any second now." They waited, but nothing happened, Jhiaxus huffed irritably, "Perhaps he needs to be provoked." He shoved Nemesis forward.

The assassin chose to ignore Jhiaxus' almost obvious joke about the obnoxious personality he'd had when he was Sentinel Prime. Instead he approached the dead Decepticon, wondering if it would work. "Is this how it ends then? The mighty Megatron slain by his own soldier? Weak isn't it? Pathetic even. How could _anyone_ have _ever_ called you a fearsome warrior!?"

According to Jhiaxus, when the body died a mech consciousness stayed behind for a while, and if his experiment was a success…

Still nothing.

Nemesis turned around, "A failure." He announced, "Just _another_ complete _failure_."

Then they heard in, the sound of cracking metal, then a voice.

_"Take that back!"_

Nemesis turned around and parried the sudden attack. Before him, Megatron's body stood, the armor cracking and falling away like the cocoon of a butterfly emerging after encasing itself away.

Which was exactly what was happening to the Decepticon leader.

Beneath Megatron's falling armor, another robot was emerging, his optics colder and crueler then the previous on-lined and the new mech growled trashing his sword at Nemesis in an almost blind fury. The black Prime held his ground, blocking each attack with his own shadow sword. Nemesis began the footwork required of the technique which had defeated Ultra Magnus, and within moments his attacker was weaponless and fuming.

"Well done." Jhiaxus marveled, "Better then I expected." He approached holding Megatron's discarded helm.

"Who are you?" The mech demanded, the glancing down at himself added "What happened to me?"

Jhiaxus's optics glimmered with pride. "Well, _Galvatron_, I could explain it to you now…but first I think you should get new armor, a general should _never_ present himself to his troops with his circuits showing."

"My name is Megaton." The mech growled.

"It _used_ to be." Nemesis told him, "Go with Jhiaxus, he'll explain things, I'll catch up."

Jhiaxus protested, but Nemesis ignored him, Instead, he swept past the battle field to the place he had hidden an unconscious robot, one of the jets; _Jetstorm_, if he remembered which one he named which correctly. He'd wanted to catch his brother too, but hadn't had the time. Nemesis picked him up and carried him to his ship where he placed him in a stasis pod next to Optimus. Stepping back he looked fondly at the jet. He hadn't been to sure at first, but he had grown quite attached to the two of them.

Quickly Nemesis counted the stasis pods on this ship. Seven. He made a mental list of who he wanted to protect. Optimus, the jets, Blackarachnia, Jazz… that was five so far. He considered who was left, who he cared most about in the Autobot army. Nobody came immediately to mind. Blurr maybe, but the speaking fast usually got on his nerves. Perhaps he would just pick to random bots and call it good.

Nemesis looked at his two prisoners, his friends, "There isn't much time left." He whispered to them. "I'll have to hurry and get the others."

**Author's end note: **Okay this time I SWEAR I'll get Galvatron and Sideways' stories in the next chapter, as well as Arcee's decision and its effect on the fic. Whoo, were getting to the good part.

**Editor's note:** Please review.


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